Making Legal-Aid Billing Work: Insights from Tuscano Law using uLawPractice
In Canada, one of the biggest challenges for lawyers doing legal-aid work is how to make the economics work while maintaining high-quality service and keeping practice management efficient. In a recent interview, Arica Tuscano, founder of Tuscano Law (Surrey, British Columbia) shared her experience navigating these challenges in the context of British Columbia’s legal-aid system.
Who is Arica Tuscano?
Arica brings a multi-jurisdictional background to her practice. Originally trained in Mumbai, she was called to the Law Society of British Columbia in 2021 and now leads a firm specialising in family law, immigration, civil litigation, wills & estates and personal injury. Tuscano Law is also known for accepting legal-aid clients and offering unbundled legal services — an increasingly important model for improving access to justice.
Legal Aid in BC: What lawyers should know
When you decide to accept legal-aid clients through Legal Aid BC (LABC), you must navigate unique billing rules, tariffs and reporting requirements. For many firms, the billing process can feel cumbersome — competing priorities, tight budgets and the need for transparency all add stress.
Arica emphasizes that process matters: because legal-aid billing often involves strict timelines, mandated formats and oversight, having the right workflow and technology in place can make the difference between a smooth process and one that drains resources.
Why uLaw Matters for Legal-Aid Work
Because legal-aid reimbursement is tight, every efficiency counts.
Arica highlights an important reality: when billing is capped and rates are limited, your internal costs must stay low. uLaw makes that possible by removing unnecessary admin hours and giving her team more time to focus on actual legal work.
Because staff need consistency and structure.
uLaw standardizes the entire workflow:
- intake
- tasks
- time entries
- billing
- close-out reports
This helps new staff ramp up quickly and ensures that every legal-aid file is handled the same way.
Because access to justice depends on sustainable systems.
Without tools like uLaw, many firms avoid legal-aid work because of the administrative burden. Arica stresses that when firms have good systems, legal-aid becomes viable, and more clients get the help they need.
Streamlining billing via technology and workflow
A recurring theme in the discussion was how Tuscano Law leverages practice-management tools like uLaw and internal workflows to keep billing under control. Key take-aways include:
- Use of a modern practice-management platform that tracks time, tasks, and billing codes properly
- Regular training and update sessions so that staff understand legal-aid tariffs and reporting deadlines
- Keeping clear records from intake through to file closure to ensure there are no surprises
- Conducting periodic internal audits to catch missing entries, late submissions or format mismatches before they become major issues
By doing so, Arica reports fewer billing disputes and faster reimbursement under LABC contracts.
Unbundled services: A practical model for today
Another important area Arica addresses is the growth of unbundled legal services — where a lawyer provides limited-scope representation (e.g., document drafting, motion preparation, or discrete advice) rather than full-service representation. This model offers two major benefits:
- Cost efficiency for clients — clients with limited means get access to quality representation without the full fees of full-service models.
- Flexibility for the lawyer — the lawyer can control scope, cost and time more easily, and potentially integrate legal-aid work alongside other parts of the practice.
Unbundled services are especially relevant in family law or immigration matters, where clients may need specific help rather than full litigation throughout.
Advice for law firms planning to do more legal-aid work
Some practical guidance emerged for law firms wanting to expand into legal-aid billing:
- Start with pilot files: pick a manageable number of legal-aid matters to begin with, so you can test workflows, tariff codes and reimbursement procedures.
- Document your process: create checklists and timelines for each major step (intake, task tracking, coding, submission) and revise them as you learn.
- Train your team: ensure everyone involved (from intake clerks to senior partners) understands legal-aid constraints, tariff codes and quality expectations.
- Review metrics regularly: monitor turnaround for billing, timespent vs. tariff value, write-offs and recoveries — adjusting your model where necessary.
- Maintain quality: even though legal-aid billing may feel constrained, quality of service cannot be sacrificed — client satisfaction, reputation and referral flow still matter.
Why this matters for access to justice
When law firms like Tuscano Law optimise legal-aid billing, clients benefit, and so does the justice system. By reducing administrative drag and increasing efficiency, lawyers can devote more time to actual client work rather than administrative headaches. That means more clients served, cases advanced, and justice delivered.
Final thoughts
Legal-aid work may require more structure, more oversight and more upfront investment in process than a typical private matter — but as Arica shows, the payoff is not only in fulfilling social mission but also in building a sustainable legal-aid practice. With the right tools, mindset and team in place, legal-aid billing doesn’t have to be a cost-centre — it can be a strategic part of your practice.
If you found this useful — you’ll want to watch the testimonial and share it with colleagues. Also check out our upcoming posts where we’ll dive into specific practice-management tools, tariff analyses and firm workflows.
Want to learn more?
- Visit Tuscano Law → https://tuscanolaw.com/about-us/
- Explore Legal Aid BC’s service & billing guidelines → https://legalaid.bc.ca/services