Jamieson arrives with reforming agenda

Having already made some major announcements on the criminal justice system, the signals are that Cathy Jamieson’s tenure as Justice Minister promises to be that rarest of beasts in modern politics, one with a genuine reforming agenda.

Proposals for radical overhaul of the system - in particular extending the 110 day rule - following on from Lord Bonomy’s report into the administration of the High Court, clearly illustrates there are no sacred cows as far as this Justice Minister is concerned.

While her appointment sparked surprise in some quarters, Jamieson says she has had a long-standing interest in the issues that are now central to what the administration is trying to do.

At the core of that is making the justice system, both criminal and civil, more ‘user-friendly’, and accessible to ordinary people.

“People may only have to use the justice system once in their lives, but that has to be as far as possible, a positive experience. We will be looking at the whole civil justice agenda and how to modernise that, bringing it into the 21st century, keeping the best bits and modernise where it’s needed.”

Jamieson said she is aware of the challenges right across her portfolio, highlighting the “high degree of pressure to deliver in terms of reducing re-offending rates and making communities feel safer”.

While the criminal justice agenda has dominated her early days, the issue of concern to many in the profession, the rates of pay for criminal legal aid, does not, unsurprisingly, seem to have come on her desk as a priority.

Pressed on it she said she knew it had been raised as an issue and that she was sure there would continue to be debate and discussion around it “but it was not something that had been brought directly to my attention”.

However, she did hint it is important there are a range of options for people to get access to justice – expect the announcement of new Public Defence Solicitors Offices - but denies that it would be politically impossible for the administration, for fear of a tabloid backlash, to up the rates for criminal defence lawyers, as many in the profession have suggested.

“It would not be fair to say that the Executive is driven entirely by what the media will say. What sometimes happens is there is a high profile case where the general public or the press would be saying, ‘why on earth is this a priority either for an individual lawyer or the legal profession and why are we doing this’. Those kinds of situations make it difficult. I think in terms of the ordinary cases, the majority of the public would certainly feel that people have the right to get the appropriate legal advice, opinion and support when they need it, but would perhaps want to see that done in a more transparent way.”

On the issue of civil legal aid, Jamieson said “one of the things we did do in the past administration was to ensure there was better provision of community based legal advice”.

She acknowledges that unmet need in civil justice is one of the major issues in her portfolio.

“It is often the people who are just at the point where they may or may not qualify who may rule themselves out of doing certain things. There is always a question about that in any system where it is determined by income levels.

“Discussions are ongoing, and it’s something I feel very strongly about that we should provide a system that means people can get access to it when it’s most needed. If there is something in the local communities, that would be one way of ensuring people can get access to justice when they most need it.”

Jamieson took time to praise those lawyers who engage in pro bono work.

“At the end of the day people are running businesses and where they take their social responsibilities very seriously, and I know that many people in the profession do, either directly with individual clients or more widely by supporting different organisations or taking up issues, that’s highly commendable.”

It was in her time as a social worker that Jamieson began to come into frequent contact with lawyers.

“I have had considerable experience dealing with courts from that side of things. I have worked with lawyers in a number of different ways and in different roles, both in social work and looking at changes to legislation. I was very involved with the Child Law Centre in the run up to the Children Scotland Act being introduced and was on a number of working parties.

“I think there’s a great element whereby my experience and the experience of people with a legal background can be used to complement one another. I know some people might think it is a bit strange that I have come into this portfolio and I’m not a lawyer, but I make no apologies for that. I am interested in justice and there are plenty of people around who are lawyers and will give me all the right legal advice when I need it.”

She empathises with the bad press that often afflicts the legal profession.

“I have to say that social workers get a worse time of it than even politicians or lawyers. But members of the public probably have a perception that lawyers have an exclusive existence. Perhaps people do not understand the often technical nature of a lot of the work lawyers do or they base their opinions of what they see in newspapers. Many people will go through their lives without having to seek the services of the legal profession; therefore opinions are formed without direct experience.

“Like dealing with social workers, people are seeing lawyers when they are angry and vulnerable and sometimes those problems will not be solved in the way the individual client would like and lawyers will have the difficult job of telling people they cannot do what the client wants.”

The measure of the success of her time as Justice Minister will be how the Executive is able to deliver on the things they have committed to in the partnership agreement.

“I have made it clear that my agenda is about reforming, modernising the legal system, so I would expect to be judged on getting legislative changes through but also bringing about some of the reforms that are needed in terms of the prison service, the community justice agenda and on things like family law reform which has been on the backburner for a while. That’s not to mention the cross-cutting agendas like youth crime, anti-social behaviour and all the other things we have committed to do. If we do all that in four years, I think I’ll have achieved a reasonable amount.”