Accounting
Do you offer partial accounting services?
You can completely decide how much or little you wish to outsource from your accounting department. Some firms outsource their full accounting department while others work on a partial outsourcing. Do give us a call should you be interested in a full service or just for example bank reconciliation or billing.
Legal Aid
Are you able to provide accounting assistance using non-legal accounting software?
Absolutely!
In addition to legal software’s, such as Leap and ALB just to name the top two, we are able to offer accounting services on non-legal accounting software’s such as quickbooks and xero. We are always expanding our software database and training so do get in touch to have a discussion on how we might be able to work with your current accounting software.
Do you have a backlog of legal aid claims that you just never to seem to get to?
LBM is here to take the load off your fee earns and their backlog of claims. If you have old matters that seem to never have been billed, or are complex and just require more time that you don’t have then do get in contact and we will work with you to clear your backlog.
Do you deal with the old paper based Legal Aid claims?
Yes, we have expertise in both the old paper based and the new ccms claims.
Currently have your own legal billing team but need extra hands to post the assessments and reconcile your ledgers?
LBM can work along side your existing team to help keep your ledgers up to date. Once an assessment is received from the LAA we offer a range of services to pick from:
• Posting and ledger reconciliation
• LAA Bacs remittance reconciliation
• Sorting out third party payments
• Advise on potential appeals (if claim reduced)
Do you offer both civil and criminal legal aid?
LBM are specialists in all public funded work and our services include:
Civil Legal Aid
Legal Aid Controlled Work (Legal Help) Billing and escape fees
Exceptional (Inquests)
High Costs Case Plans
Legal Aid Claims (CIV CLAIM1’s, CIV CLAIM1A’s, CIV CLAIM2’s and CCMS submissions);
Legal Aid / Inter Party Bills
Legal Aid Schedules
Appeals against a Legal Aid Assessment
Criminal (Crime) Legal Aid
Police Station
Crown Court Billing and Crown Court Appeals
Magistrate Court fixed fee work
Magistrate Court non-standard Exceptional Fees billing
Prison Law (fixed fee and exceptional)
Advocate Graduated Fees
General Services
Do you offer services to deal with historic issues? Including residual balances on client/office account ledger?
LBM are always at hand to help tackle any residual balances (private or legal aid). Residual client ledger balances cause particular issues for the Compliance Officer for Finance and Administration (COFA) within a firm and therefore we are here to help.
There are very few law firms that do not face the probelm of residual balances on their client account. Might be that the fee earner left without clearing the ledger, forgotten attempts to contact client to refund or simply its balances that have been lost over time on the system. Sometimes these balances might just be a few pounds and might feel its not worth the time to reconcile the ledger, however they can create very real compliance problems under the SRA Accounts Rules 2011.
Under rule 14.3 of the SRA Accounts Rules 2011, client money must be returned to the client (or other person on whose behalf the money is held) promptly, as soon as there is no longer any proper reason to retain those funds. Payments received after you have already accounted to the client, for example by way of a refund, must be paid to the client promptly. Therefore even if your client account has a minor balance it is likely to represent a repeated breach and/or systematic failure and will, therefore, constitute a material breach of the SRA Accounts Rules 2011 that should be reported to the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) by the COFA.
Are you able to assist in setting up a new accounting software?
Thinking that your current accounting software has out lived its purpose? We can help you set up your new software- from setting up purchase ledger to moving over all ongoing client matters.
Do you provide temporary holiday cover and sick leave?
Whether you are looking for someone to cover unexpected sick leave for one day, or planned holiday cover, LBM is able to provide remote services all year round.
Our team of billers are on hand 24/7 to support you and your firm with all those unforeseen absences and peak workloads
Top ten Reasons why our clients use us to fill in the gap to their current team:
Short and long term sick leave
Holiday cover
Temp to perm
Maternity / Paternity cover
Seasonal workflow
Flexible workforce
Remember, temporary staff are a wonderful resource and using them can give you the flexibility to meet market demands quickly and at a level you can afford.