EMERGENCY measures have been brought in at taxpayers' expense to ensure a scheme to provide legal cover in police stations across Scotland does not collapse in the wake of a mass solicitor boycott.
The Scottish Legal Aid Board (Slab) has parachuted in four new solicitors while its own 22 public defenders have had their remits extended to provide cover for the scheme, which began operating on Monday.
It followed last year’s Supreme Court decision in the Cadder case which prevents police from interviewing suspects without access to a lawyer.
Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill requested the move following mass resistance from the legal profession in Scotland amid claims that it is unnecessary and solicitors will get paid less money than before.
The Scottish Government last night described the Law Society of Scotland’s objections as “unfortunate and regrettable”.
The Cadder ruling found that allowing suspects to be held and questioned for six hours without a lawyer breached the European Convention on Human Rights.
The Glasgow Bar Association (GBA) and the Law Society of Scotland, the governing body for solicitors, rejected the scheme with claims by the Bar it was an “outrageous” legacy of the Cadder decision.
The GBA, which said only nine solicitors in Glasgow had joined the initiative, claimed police officers were still contacting solicitors direct for help, describing the scheme as “shambolic and utterly unacceptable”.
It said: “The former system has been replaced with a much more complicated and costly process which has already been shown up as chaotic and apparently not working. The people responsible for this farce must be held accountable.”
Both GBA and the Law Society of Scotland claimed that even those solicitors who signed up for the scheme were withdrawing.
Slab figures show 148 solicitors from 89 law firms in Scotland having signed up – 100 fewer than two weeks ago.
The Law Society of Scotland, the governing body for solicitors, had claimed only 15% were due to take part in the initiative and described the cover as “unnecessary, unjustified and unacceptable”.
Slab, who have been given the responsibility for providing stations with duty solicitors for people in custody, said the new arrangements have meant the scheme was so far operating successfully, with suspects now “able to receive advice within minutes rather than hours”.
A spokesman said: “There is no chaos here. The scheme was developed following full engagement with the Law Society of Scotland and was designed to have substantial private practice involvement and as such it is disappointing that a number of local faculties have decided not to engage with the scheme.”
It would not discuss the costs of the refashioned scheme but said they will be “well within the estimate of costs when Parliament considered the Bill”.
A solicitor contact line is expected to cost around £50,000 for the first three months, which Slab said it would endeavour to meet by finding savings in its own administrative budget.
The Law Society of Scotland said it remains concerned that a suspect will not get to access his or her solicitor of choice, with solicitors only able to access Legal Aid for clients if they sign up to the duty scheme. It called for transparency over the costs.
“We don’t think it was necessary because solicitors did literally go the extra mile for their clients and if someone phoned up looking for them, they would see them or give them advice on the phone,” said a spokeswoman. “It’s also all about people getting the solicitor of choice, so they get the one they want.”
A Scottish Government spokesman said the Law Society’s stance was unfortunate and regrettable.
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