THE LAW Society of Scotland is calling on the Scottish Legal Aid Board (SLAB) to put off bringing in a new code of practice for criminal solicitors until there is clarity on the fees they will receive for doing police station work.
As the 2016 Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act has given new rights to people detained by the police, the SLAB has drawn up a draft code that “sets out the standards required of solicitors offering to provide police station advice and other criminal work”.
While the SLAB extended its consultation on the code at the Law Society’s request, the professional body said it should not come into effect until new legal aid fee levels have been agreed. In February the Scottish Government announced a year-long legal aid review that will look at how fees are structured and paid.
Ian Moir, convener of the Law Society’s criminal legal aid committee, said that while the SLAB code of practice, which was written in 1999, needs updating “unfortunately we don’t believe that the draft code meets the requirements of today’s solicitors as they work to represent their clients in a 24/7 culture”.
“We would absolutely welcome the opportunity for a full debate and to explore the creation of a new code of practice with SLAB once the fee structure for police station advice has been determined,” he added.
“At the moment, however, we have significant concerns about the proposals and cannot recommend that members accept the code as currently drafted.”
The SLAB said that it is currently reviewing responses to its consultation on the code of practice and that a final version will have to be approved by government ministers before coming into effect.
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