What Is a Legal Aid Attendance Note? — UK Criminal Defence Glossary
A legal aid attendance note is an attendance note that serves as contemporaneous evidence to support a claim for payment from the Legal Aid Agency. In England and Wales, solicitors and representatives doing publicly funded police station work must maintain attendance notes that record the date, time, duration, nature of work done, and the fee type claimed.
Detailed explanation
Every attendance note created during publicly funded police station work is, in effect, a legal aid attendance note — because it must be capable of supporting the billing claim. The Standard Crime Contract requires providers to maintain adequate records of the work done and the time spent. The Legal Aid Agency may audit files at any time, and the attendance note is the primary document an assessor reviews when verifying a claim.
The distinction between an attendance note and a legal aid attendance note is one of function rather than format. Any attendance note that supports a legal aid claim must include billing-relevant information: the fee type (fixed fee or escape fee), the attendance type (custody, voluntary, telephone), the time breakdown by activity, and any disbursements. Without this information, the note may be adequate for case management but inadequate for billing.
Under the fixed fee scheme, most police station claims are submitted as a standard fixed fee. The attendance note must demonstrate that the work was done and that the fee type is correct. For escape fee claims — where the work exceeds three times the fixed fee value — the attendance note must provide a detailed time breakdown and a narrative justifying the additional complexity.
When practitioners encounter legal aid attendance notes
Practitioners encounter legal aid attendance notes at every stage of the billing cycle. The billing team uses the note to complete the CRM form. The compliance officer reviews notes during internal audits. The LAA assessor reviews notes when auditing files or querying claims. And the practitioner themselves may need to revisit the note months later to respond to a billing query.
Common friction points include: attendance notes that record the legal work but not the billing data, notes where the time breakdown does not match the CRM totals, and notes that use inconsistent attendance type codes. Each of these creates additional work for the billing team and increases the risk of claim rejection.
How legal aid attendance notes relate to broader record-keeping
The legal aid attendance note is part of a chain: the attendance note supports the CRM form, the CRM form supports the monthly claim submitted through the Submit a Bulk Claim system, and the monthly claim supports the firm's contract compliance. A weakness at any point in the chain can affect the entire claim. Structured attendance notes that capture billing data at the point of attendance — rather than retrospectively — reduce errors and speed up the billing workflow.
Key points to record for legal aid purposes
- Fee type: fixed fee (INVC), telephone fee (INVB1/INVB2), or escape fee
- Attendance type: custody, voluntary, or telephone
- Date and start/end times for each activity
- Time breakdown: travel, waiting, consultation, interview, post-interview, and administration
- Custody record number (for custody attendances)
- UFN (Unique File Number) for the matter
- Disbursements: interpreter, mileage, or other costs
- Escape fee narrative if applicable
- Client and matter identifiers consistent with the CRM
Related terms
- Attendance note — the general record of a client attendance
- Time recording for legal aid — the practice of recording time for billing claims
- Duty solicitor — a solicitor on the rota providing publicly funded advice
- Police station representative — an accredited representative doing legal aid work
Frequently asked questions
What happens if the LAA audits a file and the attendance note is inadequate?
If an LAA assessor reviews a file and finds the attendance note insufficient to support the claim, the provider may be asked to provide further evidence, the claim may be reduced, or the claim may be rejected. In persistent cases, inadequate record-keeping can contribute to contract compliance action. The attendance note does not need to be lengthy, but it must contain enough detail to demonstrate that the claimed work was done at the claimed times.
Do attendance notes need to be typed or can they be handwritten?
The LAA does not prescribe the format. Handwritten notes are acceptable provided they are legible, contemporaneous, and contain the required information. However, handwritten notes create practical difficulties: they must be scanned or photocopied for submission, they cannot be searched, and they are more prone to transcription errors when billing data is extracted. Most firms producing high volumes of police station work now use digital attendance notes for efficiency and accuracy.
How does CustodyNote help with legal aid attendance notes?
CustodyNote includes LAA-oriented billing fields — fee type, attendance type, time recording, disbursements, and fee calculation — as part of the attendance note workflow. This means billing data is captured at the point of attendance rather than reconstructed later. CustodyNote is not endorsed by the LAA; it is a practice tool that helps practitioners produce structured records to support their own professional judgment and billing processes.
Capture billing data at the point of attendance.
CustodyNote builds LAA billing fields into every attendance note — fee type, time breakdown, disbursements, and fee calculation. Free for 30 days.
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