Another voice raised against lawyer loans in place of legal aid

Employment claims are unsuited to a proposal that solicitors should enter into loan agreements with clients for payment of their fees in certain types of case, in place of legal aid, a solicitor argues today.

Writing in the Herald, Stephen Smith of the Glasgow Law Practice suggests that the result of the idea, put forward in a discussion paper by the Law Society of Scotland's Legal Aid Committee, would be that only employers would be legally represented in future disputes.

The committee's paper attempts to point to a new way ahead for legal aid at a time of tightening budgets but continuing demand, and argures that some types of civil claims, including debt, personal injury and employment cases, could be funded in other ways, including by loan agreements. However the proposals have proved controversial especially with law centres, which have a high proportion of clients on legal aid.

Mr Smith describes the employment proposal as "particularly baffling", as few such cases are clear cut and clients already have to pay employment tribunal fees in order to bring a claim – which has resulted in a 70% drop in claims in Scotland since the fees were introduced. Clients should not, he argues, be asked to make long term financial decisions at a time when they are "upset, embarrassed or at a low ebb financially".

The authors of the paper have pointed out that legal insurance and loan schemes already exist and could be expanded to such cases, though a client should have independent advice before entering into a scheme.

An article by the co-conveners of the committee, Mark Thorley and Ian Moir, will be published in this month's Journal as a follow-up to an article published last month. The Law Society of Scotland is inviting comments on the paper's proposals until 30 January 2015.