A LEGAL association is claiming that a controversial police station duty scheme discriminates against female solicitors and lawyers suffering from disabilities.
The Glasgow Bar Association (GBA) believes that many solicitors are losing out on clients by not signing up to the scheme which was introduced following the contentious Cadder ruling.
GBA president Kenneth Waddell said that many women solicitors with young children and those with disabilities feel unable to participate as it requires them to attend at a police station at any time of the day or night.
However, the Scottish Legal Aid Board claims that the scheme can be adapted to suit those who struggle to meet demands.
Mr Waddell said: “I consider that the regulations may discriminate against women, indirectly.
“More women than men are likely to be unable to sign up and agree to the required availability, principally due to family and child-care considerations.
“Disability discrimination is a further valid concern as those with disabilities aren’t able to commit to the demands of the service. Anyone with family commitments or a disability cannot sign up to the scheme and can’t then admit people to government funding. They just aren’t taken into account.”
Mr Waddell added: “Now, if we are not on the duty scheme, we either do the work for our own clients with no payment, or risk the paid duty solicitor becoming the accused’s solicitor of choice and lose out on business.
“Many solicitors would like to deal with calls from police in respect of their own clients. Before these regulations came in we could do exactly that.”
The duty scheme was introduced earlier this year following a UK supreme court ruling which means that police cannot interview detainees without a solicitor present.
Only solicitors who have signed up to the scheme will be paid for advising clients in police custody. Glasgow solicitor Jacqueline Doyle, who suffers from multiple sclerosis, claims that her firm may now have to stop taking on criminal work.
Miss Doyle said: “I need to get injections at night and I need to get a lot of sleep because of my condition, so it prohibits me from signing up to the scheme.
“And the other solicitor I’ve got working with me has six children so they can’t sign up. It means that we can’t go to see clients at the police station and will stand to lose clients. It’s likely that we won’t have much more criminal work to do. We’ll need to rely more on matrimonial and civil cases.”
Miss Doyle added: “I’m not married and I don’t have any children but I can see how people who do would struggle to sign up to the scheme.
“You have to be up and out at all hours of the morning and people who have children will not be able to leave them.”
The Legal Aid board claims that concessions can be made to those who require them, but added a solicitor cannot simply represent their own clients if they sign up to the scheme.
A board spokesman said: “The scheme makes full allowances for any solicitors who would be unable to attend a suspect in a police station due to court or family commitments, and this would obviously extend to any health issues. The board conducted an equalities impact assessment on the scheme before it was published, which highlighted the possibility that not all solicitors would be able to attend a police station and the scheme reflects and makes allowances for this.
“The scheme does not stop someone from being a duty solicitor because of a disability or childcare responsibilities, and they would not be removed from the scheme if they have been unable to fulfil a duty slot for those reasons.”
The Law Society of Scotland said that they are aware of the GBA’s position.
Ian Bryce, of the society, added: “Clearly some solicitors may be unable to participate in the scheme due to their own personal circumstances. However, we would encourage practitioners to participate if they can do so.”
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