The Scottish Legal Action Group: fighting for access to justice in 2015

Legislative reform and government policy indicates that whatsoever happens, the future of justice in Scotland will look radically different from that dispensed in centuries gone by.

On the criminal front, despite well over a year of vocal protestation from the profession, corroboration (as we have come to know it), looks to be dead and buried. What exactly is going to replace it remains to be decided upon.

Civil justice, for its part too, is also facing wholesale reform. The Courts Reform (Scotland) 2014 Act, which amongst other things, increases the privative jurisdiction of the Court of Session substantially and establishes a new specialist designated personal injury court in Edinburgh was recently described as “the single most important piece of legislation in the field of civil justice for over a century” by the Lord President.

Whichever way one looks, change is undoubtedly on the horizon. The driving purpose of the Scottish Legal Action Group during this period of flux, now, as before, is to ensure that those most disadvantaged in our society have an effective voice when it comes to legal reform and policy which affects them.

To pick just two contemporary examples, recent court closures and the Law Society’s discussion paper on legal aid reform present significant issues for members of the public and effective access to justice in Scotland generally in our opinion. The Scottish Legal Action Group will continue to make its and others’ voices heard via the monthly SCOLAG Legal Journal, responding to relevant consultations and engaging with interested parties generally.

If you’d like to find out more about our work, contribute articles to our journal or would like to become involved yourself as a director, we’d love to hear from you.

Please contact ehkeane@gmail.com in relation to the work of the group and joining the board and Editor@scolag.org in relation to contributing content to the journal.