Up to 20 faculties boycott holiday custody courts

At least 16 faculties of solicitors across Scotland are boycotting the St Andrew’s Day Holiday courts in support of the "Gowns down" protest about legal aid rates, the Scottish Solicitors' Bar Association as said.

In a tweet the SSBA named Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Kilmarnock, Dundee, Forfar, Kirkcaldy, Falkirk, Perth, Paisley, Highland & Moray, West Lothian, Dunfermline, Airdrie, Ayr and Dumbarton as all taking action to protest "against the continuing failure of the Scottish Government to properly fund the Criminal Justice system".

Other solicitors replied to say that Greenock, Stirling and Alloa, and at least one firm in Stranraer, are also joining in.

Ahead of the action the SSBA said that since a similar protest by the Edinburgh and Glasgow Bar Associations last year, "very little has changed for legal aid professionals".

It highlights that the fixed fee for summary criminal legal aid cases, the core of practitioners' work, set in 1999, is now significantly less in real terms than it was then, and the criminal defence bar is unable to compete with the salaries offered by other public bodies, in particular the recently increased pay for procurators fiscal. "We continue to see younger members leave criminal defence work in significant numbers. This is an inevitable consequence of funding one part of the Justice system whilst neglecting another", the SSBA added.

The SSBA has still to receive a response from the Minister for Community Safety to a letter written jointly with the Law Society of Scotland on 12 November 2021, identifying "areas of urgent concern for legal aid reform".

Coinciding with today's action, a protest is taking place outside the Scottish Parliament at 12 noon.