Solicitors moot new bar association as legal advice rules arrive

A new Scotland-wide bar association has been mooted to negotiate directly with the Scottish government as powers entitling anyone who faces police questioning to legal advice, regardless of whether they have been charged or not, come into force.

In the past month, hundreds of solicitors have withdrawn from the scheme providing legal advice to people facing questioning because of sustained cuts to the legal aid budget – which they say will leave them unable to deal with the heavier workload brought on by the new legislation.

Ian Moir, convener of the Law Society of Scotland Legal Aid Committee said: “The new legislation means that any suspect detained at a police station has the right to access to a solicitor. While we accept the good intentions of the act in protecting a suspect’s human rights and in particular some of our most vulnerable members of society, there are enormous resourcing implications.

“During our discussions with the Scottish government, we highlighted the likelihood of significant increases in the number of requests for a solicitor’s attendance and the implications of solicitors being expected to provide legal advice at police stations around the clock. The new procedures could have a particular impact on those solicitors with young children or with other caring responsibilities.”

The Law Society said that while legal aid rates had been increased for this work, and were a modest improvement on the Scottish government’s initial proposal, they remained inadequate.

Mr Moir added: “The proposed rates of legal aid fall well short of what we consider to be fair and reasonable. Individual solicitors and their firms have to make a decision on whether to take part in the revised police station scheme and throughout our discussions we highlighted to Scottish ministers that there was a risk of solicitors choosing to opt out of the scheme.”

“The new framework strikes a balance between strengthening the powers available to police, while protecting the rights of the accused.“The Scottish government has worked closely with criminal justice partners in the lead up to implementation to ensure a smooth transition to new arrest and custody procedures as they come into force across Scotland today.”