Legal Aid

Moir and Sweeney Litigation partner Ian Moir is well known as a vociferous defender of legal aid, with his role as co-convenor of the Law Society of Scotland’s legal aid committee seeing him lobby hard on behalf of colleagues who make a living doing publicly funded work. As part of that he hel

More flexible interim payment arrangements for legal aid lawyers will be made but require primary legislation, the Scottish government has announced. Legal aid lawyers have been asked to finalise and submit their accounts "as soon as possible" as legal affairs minister Ash Denham said the Scottish L

Almost half a billion pounds has been slashed from the legal aid budget since the SNP came to power, Scottish Labour has said. The party said a funding freeze that was announced in the draft budget means spending has plummeted by £499 million in real terms since 2007/08.

The Scottish government has said legal aid is functioning well and that "any suggestion to the contrary is untrue" amid a warning that the tide of lawyers leaving the profession makes its collapse imminent. Robert More, of More and Co, said responsibility for the collapse of the system will fal

The surfeit of 'awards' ceremonies has devalued many of the honours bestowed on recipients and we can all feel a tad award-weary from time to time. But when The Herald declared Ms Joanna Cherry QC 'Best Scot at Westminster', few would have demurred. Last year began with her skewering the government

Legal aid for vulnerable migrant children who have been separated from their parents has been reinstated in England and Wales. Non-asylum immigration matters were removed from the legal aid scheme under major reforms in 2013, but ministers have now reinstated the scheme for under-18s who are not in

The three per cent increase in legal aid fees has not improved low morale among criminal lawyers, the president of the Edinburgh Bar Association (EBA) has said. In an interview with The Herald, solicitor and EBA president Julia McPartlin said "morale is not great and hasn't been great for a while" a

A new report from the International Bar Association (IBA) Access to Justice and Legal Aid Committee and the World Bank claims that improving legal aid services is as important for economic growth as providing functioning hospitals, schools and roads. The report, A Tool for Justice: A Cost Benefit An

Lawyers have expressed concern after new figures showed total expenditure on legal aid fell slightly to £123.7 million in 2018-19, down from £124.4 million in the previous year. John Mulholland, president of the Law Society of Scotland, said the regulatory body "[doesn't] believe the ove

The Law Society of Scotland has highlighted the importance of making the legal aid system easier to navigate for members of the public and solicitors, and reiterated concerns about the sustainability of funding for the service as part of the response to a Scottish government consultation on legal ai

Campaigners have called for the legal fees of bereaved families in fatal accident inquiries (FAI) to be paid out of public funds, just as all Scottish Prison Service (SPS) legal fees are paid for by the taxpayer. The SPS has spent seven times more on solicitor fees in FAIs than bereaved families hav

The public is being asked to give their views on how to ensure current legal aid provision meets the needs of modern Scotland. Ministers say they want to ensure the system is user-focused, flexible and valued as a public service.

Victims of discrimination in England and Wales are being denied their fundamental right to justice and perpetrators are going unchallenged because of failures in the legal aid system, the human rights watchdog has warned. An inquiry into legal aid for victims of discrimination by the Equality and Hu

Declining access to legal aid in England and Wales has been highlighted in a United Nations report on the UK, which describes the budget as having been "decimated". Legal aid has been dramatically reduced in England and Wales since 2012. The LASPO Act (Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offende

The Law Society of Scotland has called on the Scottish government to pursue "a package of wider reform" following a three per cent increase in legal aid fees. All solicitors and advocates who provide people with advice and representation through the legal aid scheme in Scotland received a three per