This item was published during the term of a previous administration that ended in April 2007
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Legal Profession and Legal Aid Bill
07/09/2006
A new Executive Bill intended to enhance public confidence in how legal complaints are handled and improve access to legal aid will be debated by MSPs today.
The Legal Profession and Legal Aid (Scotland) Bill will enable legal representation to be provided by a wider range of professional and other bodies.
It will also allow the Scottish Legal Aid Board (SLAB) to fund specialist advisors who are not lawyers.
A new Scottish Legal Complaints Commission will be set up which will be independent of the legal profession and will focus on the interests of service users.
Deputy Justice Minister Hugh Henry said:
"Everyone is entitled to legal services that are accessible, transparent and accountable. This is why the Executive is committed to increasing public confidence in the handling of complaints against lawyers.
"We are absolutely committed to the principle of a fully independent legal profession. We also want to see a legal profession which is properly regulated. Consumers need to be assured that their complaints will be handled impartially and efficiently.
"The establishment of the Scottish Legal Complaints Commission will provide a dispute resolution service which is independent of the legal profession. With a non-lawyer majority, the interests of consumers will be well represented on the Commission.
"The Bill will give consumers the confidence to complain, give lawyers the incentive to deal with complaints at source and give the new Commission the means to take decisions fairly and quickly when necessary.
"In addition to sound handling of complaints, people expect choice, consistency and transparency when accessing publicly funded legal advice. The measures we are introducing in the Bill to improve access to legal advice, such as extending eligibility for funding to advisors who are not lawyers, will improve public confidence in our legal system and ensure that people get the legal advice they need from whoever is best placed to give it."
Measures in the Bill include:
- creating a Scottish Legal Complaints Commission independent of the legal profession
- transferring the power to grant legal aid in solemn cases from the courts to the Scottish Legal Aid Board (SLAB)
- allowing SLAB to fund advisors with appropriate skills and expertise, not just solicitors. This will mean that payments from the Legal Aid Fund, under the Advice and Assistance scheme, will be available to people such as experienced non-lawyers in the voluntary sector who specialise in social justice issues
- enabling a wider range of legal service suppliers to provide representation
The proposed arrangements with respect to handling of legal complaints build on the outcome of a consultation exercise. "Reforming Complaints Handling: Building Consumer Confidence" which ran from May-August 2005.
Eighty five per cent of those who responded to the consultation supported the idea of an independent complaints handling body.
The Bill encourages lawyers to deal with complaints at source, but where that is not possible the Scottish Legal Complaints Commission will provide an easily accessible and effective dispute resolution service.
The Commission will improve access to justice by handling complaints about negligence in circumstances where previously such claims could only be resolved through the courts
The Commission will have a non-lawyer Chair and a non-lawyer majority. The Bill encourages lawyers to deal with complaints at source, but where that is not possible the Commission will provide an easily accessible and effective dispute resolution service. The Commission will improve access to justice by handling complaints about negligence in circumstances where previously such claims could only be resolved through the courts.
The Commission will be appointed by Scottish Ministers and the scrutiny of appointments by the Scottish Commissioner for Public Appointments will ensure that they are made on merit and that appointment procedures are transparent and consistent with best practice.