SNP cannot ignore lawyers' warnings about access to justice in Scotland
Roddy Dunlop, Dean of the Faculty of Advocates, warns ‘access to justice is rapidly becoming an aspiration instead of a basic right’
Imagine you are falsely accused of a crime. Then picture the scene as you discover, to your horror, that no lawyer will represent you in court and you will have to defend yourself against a prosecutor who is one of the finest criminal lawyers in the country.
It is a scenario that may be unlikely – most of us live our lives without ever troubling the courts – but, as we report today, the legal profession is sounding a warning that one of our most basic rights, access to justice, is at risk as the SNP government continues to ignore the legal aid funding crisis.
Despite cross-party support for an increase in the fees paid to legal aid practitioners – said to be leaving “in droves” for other legal jobs or retirement – the recent Scottish Budget saw a real-terms cut to their funding for the next financial year. To add insult to injury, there was an above-inflation increase for legal aid administration.
Legal aid system facing collapse
Roddy Dunlop KC, Dean of the Faculty of Advocates, laid out the problem succinctly: “Without adequate funding for legal aid in this country, access to justice is rapidly becoming an aspiration instead of a basic right. That is not a situation which can be tolerated in a civilised democracy.”
The Scottish Women’s Rights Centre reported that many survivors of gender-based violence had been unable to find legal aid solicitors, forcing them to pay for representation or act for themselves.
“No survivor should have to navigate the justice system on their own,” said Sandy Brindley, chief executive of Rape Crisis Scotland, which is part of the SWRC.
High stress, low pay
Last year, writing in The Scotsman, Pat Thom, president of the Law Society of Scotland, warned that “as it stands, there is a very real possibility the system will completely collapse within ten years”.
In remarks that doctors, nurses, teachers and many others paid by the public purse will recognise, she added that “solicitors have told us that legal aid work negatively impacts their well-being due to high stress and effort in exchange for low pay”, but that they continued out of a sense of “moral obligation”.
This is a question of priorities and good governance. If the SNP could be persuaded to waste less money on pet projects, electoral bribes and independence papers, Scotland might yet preserve a functioning justice system. That system relies on a legal contest between the prosecution and defence in court – and it must be a fair one.
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