(Archive) Schedule 1B fee (the ABWOR core fixed payment in the JP court)

The ABWOR core fixed payment, chargeable under Schedule 1B, Part 1, paragraph 2, applies where ABWOR is being provided in the JP court.

The ABWOR core fixed payment (£170.35 where ABWOR provided on or after 1 April 2022) covers all work undertaken in the case in circumstances where you are either:

• providing Interests of Justice ABWOR, on the application of a means and merits test, in a cited case, or
• acting as an appointed solicitor, on the application of a means test, where your client appears from custody
• the core fixed payment represents the total fee payable for all work you undertake in connection with a summary case where you are providing ABWOR from beginning to end, except work for which there is a further fixed payment as prescribed in the Schedule. This fixed payment covers all work prior to and attendance at:

• • any diet at which it is competent to provide ABWOR the first 30 minutes of conducting a proof in mitigation
  • a first or second diet of deferred sentence, and
  • any subsequent or additional work other than that specified in paragraphs 4 and 8 to 13 of Schedule 1B.

The following work is not included in the core fixed payment and is chargeable in addition:

• conducting a proof in mitigation for the first day (after the first 30 minutes)
• a third or subsequent deferred sentence (the first or second being subsumed within the core fixed payment)
• representation, per appearance, in a court designated as a youth court, domestic abuse court or at a hearing in respect of a community supervision order
• the additional payment where the court considers an SER. and the case is disposed of within either of the first or second deferred sentences, to recognise additional work undertaken within the core fixed payment
• a bail appeal under section 32 or an appeal under section 201(4) of the 1995 Act
• conducting a special reasons proof or hearing on exceptional hardship, and
• conducting a back-duty proof
• supplementary fee where at a holiday court sitting a solicitor acts for a person appearing from custody on the day on which that person is first brought to a court to answer to a complaint.

A core fixed payment of £170.35 where ABWOR is provided on or after 1 April 2022 is also available in proceedings arising from Sections  27(1)(b) of the 1995 Act or paragraph 1(1)(a) or (c) of schedule 1 of the Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act 2016, proceedings.

This is not a half fee as in the sheriff court.