Cuts to Scotland’s Legal Aid budget are forcing more people than ever to defend themselves in court, a prominent Dundee solicitor has warned.
The total cost to the taxpayer of legal assistance in Scotland was £138.6 million in 2014-15, a decrease of 8% compared to the previous year, with the 2016-17 budget allocation for the legal aid fund being set by the Scottish Government at £126.1m.
The Scottish Legal Aid Board (Slab) said the decrease was partly due to changes in the flow of criminal cases through the justice system in 2014-15.
It said 2014-15 also saw falling applications and grants of summary criminal and civil legal assistance, “offset partly by a slight increase in solemn criminal legal aid and continued growth in children’s legal assistance”.
Dundee Bar Association vice-president George Donnelly said: “It’s an indicator of how the Scottish Legal Aid Board are doing everything in their power to restrict expenditure.
“We’re finding it’s much more difficult to get Legal Aid. In serious cases it’s much more difficult to get sanction to employ expert witnesses to properly prepare a defence and you can almost forget about getting Legal Aid to defend cases in the Justice of the Peace court.
“While they will look upon it as a success, unfortunately it means quite a few people have been disenfranchised (from) getting access to legal services.
“There is no diminution in the amount of cases coming to court, it just means more and more people are being forced to defend themselves and that is one of the consequences they are not concerned about.”
Mr Donnelly said Legal Aid rates did not take into account the amount of people that legal firms employ.
He said: “The rates have not gone up since 1992 and it’s hard enough to get a grant of Legal Aid. Every penny of that expenditure is vetted by the Legal Aid board and is not paid until it is justified.
“The figure includes VAT and experts’ fees and you can get a case where experts’ fees are 10 times the legal fees.
“Those at the top of the scale employ dozens of people. It’s not a case of it going into lawyers’ pockets, far from it. The lawyers who are getting that are working damn hard to get it, at 1992 rates, which are less than what plumbers and electricians are charging.”
Slab chief executive Colin Lancaster said: “Access to justice can only be maintained in the face of these financial challenges by working collaboratively with those interested in protecting the vulnerable through a legal aid system that is broad in scope and encourages a strategic approach to meeting needs. I look forward to doing so over the coming months.”
Slab also published the fees paid to advocates, solicitor advocates and solicitors’ firms last year. Payments to solicitors totalled £107.7m, advocates £11.9m and solicitor advocates £3m.