Defence lawyers feeling let down by legal aid response
Lawyers have described as "extremely disappointing" the Scottish Government's response to a plea for additional legal aid funding to make up for income shortfalls caused by the COVID-19 lockdown.
In response to an appeal by the Law Society of Scotland for a 50% uplift in legal aid fees, with additional grant support and funding for criminal defence firms to take on trainees, ministers have pledged a training subsidy for 40 places, but fee changes only in respect of early pleas of guilty in solemn cases – which the Society said had been previously agreed in any event, with no timetable to bring in.
In a letter to the Society, Community Safety Minister Ash Denham pointed to measures already in put in place at the start of the pandemic to enable solicitors to claim interim payments. However these only provided temporary help with cash flow, and with the Scottish Legal Aid Board having paid out 27% less than budgeted in criminal legal aid so far this year, many defence firms fear for their survival.
Ms Denham claimed the measures proposed would simplify the existing fee system, reduce solicitors' administrative costs and build on steps already taken to achieve quicker payment of legal aid accounts. The increased fee for an early guilty plea would "remove the financial disincentive of a case not proceeding to trial".
She added: "I am committed to continuing discussions with the profession on fee arrangements around summary criminal work and for civil business."
Ian Moir, co-convener of the Society's Legal Aid Committee who led the talks with the Government, said the Society had yet to be offered further talks. He had replied to the Government that its offer fell way short of what he had been looking for.
Responding to other defence lawyers on Twitter, he commented: "Words cannot describe how disappointed I am... Months of tireless effort went into this."
Others had been telling him "just how desperate they are and how gutted they are at the response" – one lawyer had had to take his son's iPad to use in court for lack of means to obtain anything else.
Speaking to the Society's Journal, he said he fully understood defence lawyers' frustration and anger, and warned the Scottish Government that it had lost the goodwill of the profession through its failure to recognise the spirit with which it had worked through the crisis facing the courts.
Although the Government is claiming that almost all areas of law are now seeing an increase in legal aid business compared to this time past year, Mr Moir said this "doesn't fit with my world" – and figures reported last week by Scottish Courts & Tribunals Service show criminal business still running only at around 80% of pre-pandemic levels.
The training support – 50% for up to 40 places, to be allocated by the Society – was welcome, but it only helped if firms could afford the other 50%, along with the time to help bring on trainees.
New Generation Lawyers described the support as a "significant step", but remained "concerned about the lack of support offered to firms to retain NQs upon qualification and hope that this issue is recognised by [Scottish Government] in the near future".