Legal Aid

So, today it’s the beleaguered staff at the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service balloting on strike action. Yesterday, it was the hard-pressed members of the Edinburgh and Glasgow bar associations taking action. Both of these actions, to which Scottish Legal News is entirely sympathetic

Lawyers are taking action today in protest at the Scottish government's refusal to increase legal aid. It follows a request by the Law Society of Scotland for a 50 per cent increase in legal aid fees and a grant for struggling firms.

The Edinburgh Bar Association is to strike on St Andrew's Day next week, citing the failure of the Scottish government to take Scotland's legal aid situation seriously. On Monday 30 November, Edinburgh Sheriff Court will be open for custody business. Most staff will be paid an enhanced rate for work

The Scottish government has declined to increase legal aid fees or provide financial assistance to law firms that are currently struggling. Ministers rejected the Law Society of Scotland's suggested 50 per cent increase in legal aid fees but has agreed to increase fees for solicitors handling early

The Glasgow Bar Association (GBA) said it is "astonished" that the Scottish government has not yet offered any financial support for legal aid firms "despite what has now been months of consideration of the profession’s proposals". In a letter to Holyrood's Justice Committee, the GBA note

The Law Society of Scotland has responded to an open letter published in yesterday's edition of Scottish Legal News that decried the paltry fees paid by the Scottish Legal Aid Board to a law firm for its work on a Supreme Court case. Patricia Thom, co-convener of the Law Society of Scotland&rsq

Robert More makes some worrying predictions about legally aided criminal defence work in the wake of the lockdown. The Scottish government has recently released the response to its consultation on legal aid reform. The consultation was commissioned in light of the Independent Strategic Review by Mar

Moir and Sweeney Litigation partner Ian Moir is well known as a vociferous defender of legal aid, with his role as co-convenor of the Law Society of Scotland’s legal aid committee seeing him lobby hard on behalf of colleagues who make a living doing publicly funded work. As part of that he hel

More flexible interim payment arrangements for legal aid lawyers will be made but require primary legislation, the Scottish government has announced. Legal aid lawyers have been asked to finalise and submit their accounts "as soon as possible" as legal affairs minister Ash Denham said the Scottish L

Almost half a billion pounds has been slashed from the legal aid budget since the SNP came to power, Scottish Labour has said. The party said a funding freeze that was announced in the draft budget means spending has plummeted by £499 million in real terms since 2007/08.

The Scottish government has said legal aid is functioning well and that "any suggestion to the contrary is untrue" amid a warning that the tide of lawyers leaving the profession makes its collapse imminent. Robert More, of More and Co, said responsibility for the collapse of the system will fal

The surfeit of 'awards' ceremonies has devalued many of the honours bestowed on recipients and we can all feel a tad award-weary from time to time. But when The Herald declared Ms Joanna Cherry QC 'Best Scot at Westminster', few would have demurred. Last year began with her skewering the government

Legal aid for vulnerable migrant children who have been separated from their parents has been reinstated in England and Wales. Non-asylum immigration matters were removed from the legal aid scheme under major reforms in 2013, but ministers have now reinstated the scheme for under-18s who are not in

The three per cent increase in legal aid fees has not improved low morale among criminal lawyers, the president of the Edinburgh Bar Association (EBA) has said. In an interview with The Herald, solicitor and EBA president Julia McPartlin said "morale is not great and hasn't been great for a while" a

A new report from the International Bar Association (IBA) Access to Justice and Legal Aid Committee and the World Bank claims that improving legal aid services is as important for economic growth as providing functioning hospitals, schools and roads. The report, A Tool for Justice: A Cost Benefit An