For years, I have billed abortive police stations the same as any other police station attendances. There was a point of principle which said as follows:
Where a solicitor responds to a request for advice but, for circumstances out of the solicitor’s control, no attendance takes place, a fixed fee is still claimable. A note should be kept on the file detailing the particular circumstances (Point of Principle DS4).
Examples:
Solicitor attends for pre-arranged interview but client does not attend.
Solicitor attends the police station to find that the client has already been released.
Solicitor is en-route to police station and before arrival is informed that his services are no longer required.
However, according to Crimeline, this “Point of Principle” is no longer in force and further, it appears the LAA are now saying that an attendance on the client is necessary to claim the fixed fee.
I assist a number of firms with LAA audits and have never had this issue raised but all billers should be aware that it is a potential issue.
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