First solicitor advocates approved as "senior"

It has been an interesting year for solicitor advocates. The Rights of Audience Review is well underway and now the Society’s Council has approved 15 solicitor advocates as senior for legal aid purposes. This may help to address some of the concerns expressed in the Woodside case.

The Council’s approval is the end result of a lengthy process of discussion and consultation, and helps to remedy what some have seen as an anomalous situation.

To quote from the material issued to all potential applicants, taken in turn from the consultation: “The Law Society of Scotland is keen to stress that this scheme is not an alternative QC structure. The scheme aims to ensure that there is some independent element available to check that payments from public funds are being made appropriately.

“Accreditation will be given to those solicitor advocates who are the most able and experienced and have demonstrated the ability to deal with the most serious cases.”

The list of 15 names is the work of the assessment panel established under the chairmanship of Sheriff Principal Bowen. The panel consisted on this occasion of Alayne Swanson, President of the Society of Solicitor Advocates, Ian Bryce, solicitor advocate and member of the Society’s Council, Criona Courtney, lay member, and Alex Prentice QC, assistant principal advocate depute.

Applicants all had at least seven years’ experience as solicitor advocates, although in many cases this figure was easily exceeded. The application form asked for details of cases undertaken in the last two years, along with other relevant information.

It was intended that the list should reflect the reality of those who are currently undertaking cases of gravity and difficulty, such as might also be dealt with by QCs. As a result colleagues will probably recognise most or all of the names on the list.

In passing it is worth noting that the new accreditation scheme attracted many more applications than the single application for silk received this year. The drop in applications to be a QC, from solicitor advocates in particular, was the subject of comment from Sir William Rae, the independent observer of the QC application process. No doubt this will be the subject of further discussion.

Accreditation is for a period of five years only and is subject to review thereafter. This is meant as a means of ensuring that high standards are maintained.

As part of this exercise, solicitor advocates with four years’ experience will automatically be entitled to claim remuneration as “junior as leader”.

The next step is for changes to be made to the legal aid regulations. We understand that this should happen early next year. From that point on, only those on the list will be entitled to charge senior rates.

John Scott, Vice President (Crime), Society of Solicitor Advocates