Lurking in my e-mails was an ominous looking one from the Legal Aid Agency (LAA). No surprise there as I increasingly get e-mails from them. This one was headed ‘Go-live dates for rollout of civil online working’. For some years now the LAA has been attempting to migrate all civil applications and civil billing online. I remember attending a meeting about three years ago where the representative of the Legal Services Commission predicted that this would all be done and dusted by 2011. Now we are told that the pilot (in the North East of England) has been completed and national rollout will be from 20 January 2014.

I may have missed it but I have seen no report on the pilot. I know it was fraught with difficulties and Resolution (the organisation that represents family law solicitors) ran a detailed investigation that revealed the new online system was considerably slower than the old paper-based scheme. Perhaps all the bugs have been resolved, perhaps everyone on the pilot scheme is rejoicing in being paid by return due to the joys of the new technology, but somehow I doubt it.

It would have been nice if the LAA had published a report on the pilot scheme and told all of us weary legal aid practitioners about the advantages of the new scheme; how it would speed things up and allow us to be paid more swiftly. Surely there must be a report on the pilot scheme somewhere? There must be statistics, graphs and possibly testimonials from those currently working with the new scheme.

I am no Luddite. I understand the need for new processes, computerisation, online working etc. What concerns me, though, is that a scheme that has become a little notorious for its problems is now being rolled out to an unsuspecting profession that already has so many problems to deal with. This may become another problem amidst all the rest.

I am told that the software being used by the LAA is quite old. It takes longer to fill in an App1 online than it does using a pen. The software often freezes and online forms must be filled in with the client in front of you, which makes it impossible if the client is in prison or hospital. One practitioner said that it took several hours to fill in an App5.

There are many other difficulties and I am wondering if this may be the straw that breaks the camel’s back? Without a doubt, this will be the biggest change for legal aid practitioners since the introduction of franchising in 1994. It has been rather silently slipped into the mix and I suspect that most practitioners are unaware of what is about to happen.

Fortunately, I am in the position where I am purchasing new hard drives and servers and will have operating systems that will be able to deal with anything the LAA throws at me. But will everybody else?

Individuals, advisers, organisations and practitioners are invited to submit their accounts of the impact of the LASPO Act, particularly on people who are socially, economically or otherwise disadvantaged, for publication in this column. Submissions of up to 500 words will be published in full and, on request, anonymised.