Society video promotes legal aid funding
A new video highlighting the importance of legal aid in ensuring access to justice has been released by the Law Society of Scotland.
It comes as the Society is urging its member solicitors to contact their candidates in the Scottish Parliament election to impress on them the need to secure proper legal aid funding.
The Scottish Government's target budget for legal aid in 2016-17 is £126.4m, compared with £161.4m spent in 2010-11 and less in cash terms than 20 years ago. Some legal aid rates have not been raised since 1992.
In support of its campaign, the Society cites research carried out for it by Ipsos MORI which showed strong public support for legal aid, with 81% of the public agreeing that legal aid was a price worth paying to ensure a fair society, regardless of its cost.
A separate survey of the legal profession also showed that 78% of solicitors surveyed believed that Scottish Government policy on legal aid risked undermining access to justice for the poorest in society, with 77% backing an increase in legal aid rates.
Christine McLintock, President of the Law Society of Scotland said: “We recognise that like all public sector funding, the justice budget is under significant pressure. However legal aid funding is quite simply the cost of access to justice for those in need.
“Access to justice is an essential element of a fair and democratic society and we have highlighted it as one of one of our key priorities for this year’s Scottish election. Providing access to quality legal advice and representation for people, regardless of their financial means, helps tackle inequality, encourages early resolution of problems, and protects fundamental rights."
Ms McLintock added that the budget cuts represented a 50% cut in real terms over the last 20 years, which is “causing enormous challenges – already there are areas of the country where there are not enough solicitors providing civil legal aid to meet demand, because practitioners just can’t afford to take it on”.
The Society, which last year published a paper proposing a series of efficiency reforms to the legal aid system, argues that spending on early intervention saves money by helping to prevent homelessness, family separation, damage to future employability, community disruption, healthcare costs and other demands on public services.
“The legal aid budget cannot continue to be squeezed", Ms McLintock concluded. "If those providing legal advice and assistance are not fairly remunerated there is a serious risk that firms will not be able to afford to take on the work and that new entrants to the legal profession will not see a viable future in this vital line of work.
“There are important discussions to be had on how we can deliver better legal services to communities and how this should be funded.”