We're pleased to announce the latest release of Access Legal Case Management, Version 2.17.4

This update includes various enhancements and bug fixes detailed below.

Release 2.17.4 includes a major fix to Crime Legal Aid's monthly CDS6 billing production, so firms can complete the entire process, generation, validation, fee calculation, and the Carter Report, within ALCM without falling back to OneOffice. Alongside this, several smaller fixes bring ALCM's Crime Legal Aid behaviour, Stage Reached options, CDS file detection, class closure requirements, and retired billing codes, back in line with OneOffice.

This release also fixes an issue where a screenshot pasted into an email and then removed before sending was still being saved into the case file history as an attachment, even though it was never actually sent to the recipient. It resolves a long-standing issue preventing ALCM from loading correctly on iPad and iPhone since the move to Evo, and corrects a small discrepancy in unsocial hours calculations for Police Station attendances under Criminal Legal Aid.

Other fixes cover Opportunities incorrectly remaining marked as "Prospect" after all required information had been entered, users without delete-matter permission being unable to reject an Opportunity, clients linked to more than one matter not always showing every linked matter on their own profile, and a time recording note occasionally displaying against the wrong matter.

Please note: two further issues, relating to writing off outstanding WIP and closing a matter afterwards, are included in this release as potential fixes. Despite thorough investigation, we have been unable to reproduce these issues in our own testing. We believe the changes made address the reported behaviour, and we are asking affected customers to confirm whether these are now resolved.

Status: Potential fix - unable to reproduce internally, customer confirmation requested

Summary: When completing a matter and using the Write Off (W/O) function to clear any outstanding WIP from the completion screen, the Close option sometimes remained unavailable, preventing the matter from being closed even though the WIP had been written off. The only workaround was to run the write off again through OneOffice, after which the matter could be closed from either system.

Root Cause: This issue could not be reproduced in our test environment despite investigation, so a definitive root cause has not been confirmed.

Fix: This is being treated as a potential fix. We have made a targeted improvement to the Write Off and Close workflow based on the pattern reported, which we believe should resolve this. Because we were unable to reproduce the fault ourselves, we are asking affected customers to confirm whether the matter can now be closed successfully straight after writing off outstanding WIP, so we can verify this is fully resolved.

Status: Potential fix - unable to reproduce internally, customer confirmation requested

Summary: On some matters, using the Write Off (W/O) option on the completion tab did not actually clear the outstanding WIP; the WIP remained on the matter as if nothing had happened. This occurred intermittently across several clients, with OneOffice used as the workaround to write off the time instead.

Root Cause: This issue could not be reproduced in our UAT environment despite investigation, so a definitive root cause has not been confirmed.

Fix: This is being treated as a potential fix. We have made a targeted improvement to the Write Off process based on the reported pattern, which we believe should resolve this. As with the related matter-closing issue above, we are asking affected customers to confirm whether the Write Off option now reliably clears outstanding WIP, so we can verify this is fully fixed.

Summary: When a user recorded time on two different matters close together, opening one of those time entries could show the note from the other matter's entry instead of its own, even though the correct note appeared in the main time recording list. This risked confusion about what work had actually been done on a file.

Fix: Opening a time entry's detail now reliably retrieves its own note, so the correct information always displays regardless of how close together entries were recorded.

Summary: If a new Opportunity was created without first searching for an existing client, so the required "introduction" field was never prompted, the Opportunity could still be saved and opened as a live matter, but its status banner incorrectly continued to show "Prospect" even after the introduction was filled in afterwards.

Fix: The Opportunity status now updates correctly to "Live" once all required information, including the introduction, has been completed, regardless of the order in which it was entered.

Summary: If a screenshot was pasted into the body of an email and then removed before sending, the recipient in Outlook correctly saw no attachment, but ALCM's file history incorrectly recorded the removed screenshot as an attachment on the case. This risked an image with no relevance to the matter, or containing sensitive content, appearing on a client file when it had never actually been sent.

Fix: File history attachments are now based only on what was actually included in the email when it was sent, matching what the recipient receives in Outlook. Removed images are no longer saved to the case file.

Summary: On iPad and iPhone, opening ALCM via Evo caused the app to load, open a new tab, then load again, repeating indefinitely rather than settling into a usable state. This affected Safari, Chrome, and Edge on iOS, making ALCM effectively unusable on these devices for affected users.

Fix: ALCM now loads correctly on iPad and iPhone without triggering this repeating tab cycle, across Safari, Chrome, and Edge.

Summary: When a matter had "Is this a CDS file?" ticked but "Crime Legal Aid" left unticked, dragging an email in or out of the file prompted for a charge amount and accepted any value entered, rather than automatically applying the correct CDS rate the way OneOffice does. This risked inaccurate time recording on Crime files set up this way.

Fix: ALCM now checks the "Is this a CDS file?" setting in the same way as OneOffice, so emails dragged into these files are charged correctly without needing "Crime Legal Aid" to also be ticked.

Summary: ALCM allowed a proceedings class to be closed without a Location ID or Name being entered, whereas OneOffice requires this information before allowing the class to close.

Fix: ALCM now requires a Location ID and Name before a proceedings class can be closed, matching OneOffice.

Summary: The "Stage Reached" options available when recording time in ALCM didn't match the options available in OneOffice, which could lead to the wrong stage being selected and an incorrect time amount being applied as a result.

Fix: ALCM's Stage Reached options now match OneOffice, so the correct stage, and therefore the correct time amount, can always be selected.

Summary: On matters with more than one client attached, opening the matter correctly listed every linked client, but opening one of those clients' own profile didn't always show every matter they were linked to, even though the client search screen showed the links correctly.

Fix: The client profile screen now shows every matter a client is linked to, consistent with the matter screen and client search.

Summary: Users without permission to delete a matter were sometimes unable to reject an Opportunity, even though rejecting an Opportunity only changes its status and doesn't delete anything. This was inconsistent, with some Opportunities rejectable and others not, depending on the user's permissions.

Fix: Rejecting an Opportunity no longer requires delete-matter permission, so users can reject Opportunities consistently regardless of their delete rights.

Summary: For Police Station attendance time recorded under Criminal Legal Aid, ALCM calculated a small fee difference compared to OneOffice whenever a recorded time crossed 5:30pm. This came down to a one-minute boundary difference: OneOffice treats 5:30pm itself as the start of unsocial hours, while ALCM was treating 5:30pm as still social hours and only switching to the unsocial rate from 5:31pm.

Fix: ALCM's unsocial hours boundary now starts at 5:30pm inclusive, matching OneOffice, removing the discrepancy.

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CDS6 monthly Crime Legal Aid billing production in ALCM has been fixed and enhanced, so firms can complete the entire process, generation, validation, fee calculation, and the Carter Report, entirely within ALCM without needing to fall back to OneOffice. Error messages shown when validation issues are found are now specific, identifying the affected case, class, and the exact field that needs correcting rather than a generic failure. Fee calculations, fixed fees, and class totals have been checked against LAA requirements and now match OneOffice output.

This release also corrects two related submission issues found during this work: the residence test field is no longer included in LAA submissions, where it previously caused rejections, and spaces in the schedule number field are automatically removed before submission so they no longer cause validation errors, while still allowing spaces to be typed in OneOffice as before.

Eight "Previous Claim / Stage Reached" codes, including police station attendance for armed forces, police station attendance for immigration matters, and warrant of further detention, were retired by the Legal Aid Agency from 1 October 2025 and are no longer valid choices. ALCM no longer displays these retired codes to users recording time or completing a matter on or after that date, matching how OneOffice already handles this change.

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