Costs Software Built By Costs Specialists For Costs Draftpeople & Costs Lawyers.

Maverick Costs Continues to Expand Legal Aid Coverage Across Family and Civil Law Legal Aid billing is rarely straightforward. Different funding schemes, varying remuneration structures, and multiple categories of work often mean firms rely on a combination of spreadsheets, manual calculations, and several different systems simply to prepare accurate claims. As firms grow their Legal Aid departments, these processes become increasingly time-consuming and difficult to manage consistently. At Maverick Costs, we’ve always believed there should be a better way. Over the past year, we’ve invested heavily in expanding our Legal Aid platform to support a broader range of practice areas while simplifying the billing process for firms of all sizes. Our aim has never been to build software that supports just one category of Legal Aid work. Instead, we’re building a comprehensive Legal Aid billing platform capable of supporting the day-to-day needs of modern family and civil law practices. One of the most significant developments is the expansion of our billing engine to support both Fixed and Escape Fee bills alongside Hourly Rate bills within a single platform. Historically, these different billing models have often required separate workflows or entirely different systems. Fixed Fee and Escape Fee claims have their

Understanding the Difference Between CPGFS and Escape Fee Claims For firms undertaking publicly funded family work, understanding the distinction between Care Proceedings Graduated Fee Scheme (CPGFS) claims and Escape Fee claims is essential. Whilst both sit within the broader framework of Legal Aid remuneration, they operate in fundamentally different ways and can have a significant impact on the fees ultimately recovered by a firm. Despite this, there remains considerable confusion amongst practitioners regarding when a matter should be claimed as a fixed fee and when it may qualify as an escape fee claim. In practice, misunderstanding these differences can lead to underclaiming, rejected submissions or missed opportunities to recover fees that have been legitimately earned. As Legal Aid work continues to operate under increasing financial pressure, accurate billing has become more important than ever. This is one reason why many firms are increasingly turning to Legal Aid Costs Drafting Software to assist with claim preparation, fee calculation and CCMS submissions. What Is CPGFS? CPGFS stands for the Care Proceedings Graduated Fee Scheme. It is the scheme under which solicitors are remunerated for undertaking most publicly funded Care and Supervision proceedings. Unlike traditional hourly rate billing, CPGFS is based upon fixed