Independent review of legal aid condemned by defence solicitor Ken Dalling

Ken Dalling

Writing in The Journal, Ken Dalling, a member of the Law Society of Scotland Council, said Martyn Evans had made the most basic mistakes and questioned his conclusion that the available evidence does not justify increasing solicitors’ fees.

Mr Evans undertook the Scottish government’s independent review into legal aid, which reported this year.

In an open letter, Mr Dalling wrote: “I note the reference you make to information provided to you by various focus groups.

“Whilst those who gave their time to input to your review should be commended, I respectfully suggest that ill-informed opinions should not inform policy – except regarding the need to educate the public.”

He added: “Your concern about a general increase in legal aid rates being unlikely to find public support is, I feel, nothing to the point. Solicitors undertaking the valuable work required in a legal aid sphere should be fairly remunerated for the work that they do.”

“If legal aid lawyers do ‘think they are the bottom of the barrel’, this can only be because it is how they are treated by their paymasters. It is hard to accept you were unable to identify the evidence clearly supportive of just that,” he wrote.

A spokesman for the Scottish government said the review was undertaken by an independent panel that included lawyers.