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Oh, I checked my e-mails and on further inspection I did have issues with them! (You can imagine legal aid contributions were the least of my worries during that year!)
Correspondence as follows:
To whom it may concern:
I am writing to you with reference correspondence I received from Rossendales on 26th May, 2012. (The letter was dated 24th May, 2012). I am concerned that the letter states that my balance for legal aid contribution was in arrears by £183.00
I would like to bring to your attention some facts in light of this letter, in order to clear up this issue.
1). A letter from LSC dated 29/03/12 stated that I must pay my first payment of £655.00 on or before 26/04/12 and then each month thereafter.
Since the LSC letter and your subsequent correspondence (Dated: 19th April, 2012) stated a calendar date and not an interval (e.g. every 4 weeks), I have taken that my payment day as being on or before the 26th of each subsequent month. I also note my initial payment was made on time prior to 26th April (£655.00).
2). I had my legal aid contribution re-assessed due to hardship. The LSC contribution order is dated 10th May, 2012. You first acknowledge my re-assessment in the aforementioned letter (Dated: 24th May, 2012). I did not receive notice from Rossendales prior to this indicating a change of payment day / date. The letter states my new payment date to be 27th May, 2012. I would therefore again assume that my new payment day to be the 27th day of each subsequent calendar month. I note the LSC letter still states my payment to commence on 26/04/12 and each month thereafter.
Since I paid my initial payment of £655.00 in a timely manner, I had technically overpaid by £236.00 when taking into account my re-assessment. I would therefore consider my account should have been in credit on or before the 26/27th May, 2012 by this amount.
3). I paid a contribution instalment of £450.00 on the 25th May, 2012 via your website. This contribution was made prior to the receipt of your most recent letter, as dated above. I would therefore consider my account to be £267.00 in credit on or before 26/27th May, 2012, having paid £1150 towards my overall contribution in two months.
Please could you review the calculations based on my payments and confirm that I will not receive any penalties to my account, including the additional 6th month for late payment? I shall forward a copy of this letter to LSC and my solicitor for their records. I would also ask that you amend my name to “Redacted” on your records, since all my correspondence is addressed to “Redacted” and therefore incorrect.
Basically they are a pain in the arse. All your contributions should be well communicated from your solicitor if you applied for legal aid. If you didn't apply for legal aid you would have been liable for the full defence cost, again your solicitor will have discussed these options with you upon engaging you on your case, it is a legal requirement as far as i understand.
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