Legal Aid and Access to Justice News
Update: Cadder v HMA 26/07/2010
The Society has written to criminal practitioners to advise on current progress in discussions on police station interviews and also to provide FAQs revised to take into account the latest interim guidelines from the Lord Advocate. The letter, the FAQs and the guidance can all be downloaded from this page.
A decision is expected from the Supreme Court in Cadder v HMA on 20 October 2010, which will determine whether a suspect has the right to a solicitor during an interview at a police station.
Until the judgment is handed down, Crown Office have issued interim guidelines to police officers, with the steps which must be taken to provide a suspect with access to a solicitor before or during interview. This guidance entered into effect on 8 June 2010 and was published on 15 June. These guidelines were changed in July, and a copy of these revised interim guidelines can be downloaded from this page.
The Scottish Legal Aid Board published guidance on advice and assistance at police stations on 11 June. An update on the advice and assistance procedures was published on 15 June.
The Society is keen to represent the views of its members in its approach to negotiations with Scottish Government, Crown Office and others. If members have views or questions on the issue of attendance at police station interviews, please email Andrew Alexander at the Society.
July 2010
July 16: the Society will be holding the Legal Aid Conference on 5th and 6th November at the newly refurbished Dunblane Hydro hotel. There will be a broad range of speakers and topics, both criminal and civil and to find out more, please email Andrew Alexander.
July 7: a Faculty meeting was held to discuss the implications of the Cadder case, progress in negotiations and next steps. The new interim guidelines issued by the Lord Advocate were discussed - a copy of these guidelines can be downloaded from this page.
July 6: the Society met with Scottish Government, Crown Office and Scottish Legal Aid Board. It was agreed that suspects could consult with a solicitor initially by telephone; however, not as a replacement to a personal, private consultation at the station. Negotiations began to establish a payment scheme for police station visits by solicitors, particularly those taking place at anti-social hours.
July 5: the Society met with JUSTICE, the human rights organisation that intervened on behalf of the appellant in Cadder v. HMA.
July 2: a meeting with Crown Office, ACPOS, SLAB, Scottish Government and the Society took place this morning. The Society made representations on a number of issues and a note of the meeting will be available shortly. The FAQs on Cadder and police station interviews was updated.
July 1: the Society attended a meeting of the Glasgow Bar Association and contributed to a Q&A on the implications of the Cadder case.
June 2010
June 29: the Criminal Legal Assistance (Fees) (Scotland) Regulations were laid. A copy of these regulations can be downloaded from this page. The Society was shown a draft of these regulations at short notice and wrote to Scottish Government to object to their principles. A copy of that letter is also available to download.
June 25: a set of FAQs on access to a solicitor at police station interviews has been prepared and can be downloaded from this page.
June 24: after a productive meeting with Crown Office, a working group to discuss the practical difficulties arising from the Lord Advocate's guidelines has been established and will include Crown Office, the Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland, the Law Society of Scotland and others. The Society has also requested that the implementation date for access to a solicitor in summary cases be postponed, pending the outcome of this working group process. Equal treatment of the PDSO was also considered.
June 23: a meeting with Deans of Faculties to discuss the implications of the Cadder case has been held.
June 21: the Society has met with the Cabinet Secretary for Justice, Kenny MacAskill MSP.
June 17: the Society has sent a letter to criminal practitioners, outlining concerns with the Lord Advocate's guidelines. A copy of the letter can be downloaded from this page.
June 15: COPFS published their guidance to police officers on police station interviews. SLAB has published an update on the advice and assistance procedures for police station visits.
June 14: the Society's comments on the recent changes to police station attendance featured in Scottish Legal News.
June 11: SLAB have released guidance on advice and assistance at police stations. Initial limits for attendance at the police station are £90 for solemn and £35 for summary cases. Increases can be requested from the Board. In summary cases, unless the attendance at the police station exceeds two hours, this visit is considered part of the case disposal fee; in such cases, no additional payment is made. The Society has issued a press release on the interim changes to attendance at police stations, as a result of current proceedings at the Supreme Court. To find out more, please contact Andrew Alexander.
June 9: the Society met with a Legal Aid delegation from New Zealand - Sir John Hansen, Chairman of the Legal Services Agency and Gerard Clark of the Ministry of Justice - to compare challenges in two very similar Legal Aid jurisdictions.
June 2: The Criminal Legal Aid (Scotland) (Fees) Amendment (No. 2) Regulations 2010 were laid before the Scottish Parliament on 26th May and will come into force on 5th July. The Society successfuly campaigned to preserve the right for a solicitor to precognise at an enhanced rate and also to ensure that an enhanced payment is available for both stages of VIPER parades in solemn cases.
May 2010
May 14: the Society attended the Lord Advocate's Pro Bono Conference, at which issues such as the extent of pro bono across Scotland and the opportunities to coordinate such effort were discussed. A report on the event is online at the Journal.
May 12: the Society's criminal Legal Aid Negotiating Team has responded to the Scottish Legal Aid Board consultation on the undue hardship test in solemn applications. The consultation paper and the Society's response to the consultation can be found at the Solemn Criminal Legal Aid section of the website.
May 8: the Society provides updates on Legal Aid and Access to Justice on Twitter. Follow ScotLegalAid to find out more.
April 2010
April 30: the Society met with Helen Edwards from Ministry of Justice and Carolyn Downs, Legal Services Commission to discuss Legal Aid policy north and south of the border.
April 29: the Quarterly Report of the Society's Criminal Legal Aid Negotiating Team is now available for download. Members wanting to find out more can contact the team, with their contact details included in the report.
April 19: a report on the recent Access to Justice Conference is now available for download from this page; there is also an article on the event in the April Journal. Comments on access to justice are encouraged from members (by 11th June). To respond, please contact Andrew Alexander.
March 2010
March 30: the Society met with its counterpart south of the border, the Law Society of England and Wales, to discuss Legal Aid issues and their recent Access to Justice Review. A debate on the future of Legal Aid, with Lord Bach, the Legal Aid Minister for England and Wales, was also attended.
March 15: the Scottish Legal Aid Board has recently issued a consultation on the undue hardship test in solemn criminal applications. The Society encourages interested practitioners to submit comments on this consultation.
March 12: the Legal Aid negotiating team met with Lord Bach, the Legal Aid Minister for England and Wales. While there are many differences between the two jurisdictions, the team learned about different approaches to access to justice and also recent developments between the Legal Services Commission and Ministry of Justice.
March 2: the Legal Aid negotiation team has secured an extension to the deadline for the Scottish Legal Aid Board's consultation on verification of financial eligibility in civil and children's cases. The deadline is no longer 5th March and is now Friday 2nd April.
February 2010
February 22: the Legal Aid negotiating team has released a verification protocol for financial eligibilty in advice and assistance cases. A copy of this protocol (and accompanying covering letter from our Legal Aid convener, Oliver Adair) can be downloaded from this page.
February 19: the Society is looking for civil Legal Aid practitioners that specialise in debt and insolvency work and who would be interested in speaking at an Insolvency CPD event in April.
February 17: the Scottish Legal Aid Board will be conducting a telephone survey of civil and criminal Legal Aid solicitors in February and March. Individuals will be selected at random and the survey will take around 25 minutes. The Society encourage members to take part. Survey results will be available on the Society website after the survey concludes.
February 12: the Scottish Government regularly sends maintenance orders to the Law Society and is looking for civil Legal Aid practitioners with experience in this area to undertake this work.
To find out more about the Society's work on Legal Aid and Access to Justice, please contact Andrew Alexander on 0131 226 8886 or follow ScotLegalAid on Twitter.
Page last updated: 26 July 2010.
