‘It’s a disaster waiting to happen’: Scottish trainee solicitor speaks out about pressure, inexperience and daily potential miscarriages of justice due to 'faulty' system

A new Twitter account entitled The Secret Trainee Solicitor went live a few weeks ago and has been speaking openly and candidly about flaws and faults in the Scottish criminal justice system.

Now, the anonymous owner of that account has talked to Scotland on Sunday, concerned of the potential miscarriages of justice that could be happening every day due to the pressure on inexperienced trainees thrown in at the deep end.

The paper will be keeping their identity anonymous at their request.

Early Admittance

Scottish law: ‘It’s a disaster waiting to happen’: Scottish trainee solicitor speaks out about pressure, inexperience and daily potential miscarriages of justice due to a faulty system

After graduating from university, solicitors will traditionally undertake a two-year traineeship, where someone would work within a solicitors’ firm to learn the practical ropes of the job.

The trainee solicitor explained: “It used to be that the soonest you could apply for early admittance, which is when you went from an unqualified to a qualified [gaining a Restricted Practising Certificate], was at 12 months into your training.

"So for that 12 months ... you might not even speak to clients on the phone. You’re literally just finding your feet, reading files, watching solicitors at work. It was a much easier bedding in.

"That window has now been brought right back to three months, and so we’ve lost nine months, you know, of the bedding-in process.

"So literally you could finish uni in the May, start your trainee in the June, then August you could technically be appearing in court.

"So it means, in my opinion, you’re being thrown under the bus.”

The trainee solicitor now claims all those who have been working for 12 weeks – and eligible to apply to early admittance – are being pressured to apply whether they are ready or not.

This is because, as a qualified solicitor, that person is able to make their firm more money, as qualified rates can be charged.

“The firm don’t give you a pay rise though, you stay on £19,500 a year,” the solicitor explains. “Five days a week, 12-hour days.

"Something is going wrong somewhere in that business model.”

The result

The anonymous solicitor says: "We’re pretty much doing everything except trials.”

They have claimed trainee solicitors are being used to address the court backlog, but due to a lack of experience, they are concerned the negative impact outweighs the positives.

"The only time it [pre-trial work] tends to start getting passed to our more experienced, fully qualified solicitor, is for them to actually just run the trial,” they say.

"So if you’re a client, you’ve never spoken to a qualified solicitor [until this point], as in fully qualified and experienced, and experience counts for everything in this game.

"The issue I live in daily fear of are things called Anderson appeals, which is basically when a person can end up appealing their sentence or conviction because of inadequate representation.

"What I’m daily concerned about is, is the advice that I’m giving a client correct? Am I pushing them into a guilty plea when they shouldn’t and when it’s more arguable.

"Or likewise – am I not advising to plead guilty when maybe they should?”

According to the Criminal Procedure Act Scotland 2995, section 196, a person gets a discount on their sentence the earlier they plead guilty.

The unnamed solicitor says: “This is an incentive that shouldn’t be seen as leading to innocent people pleading guilty, but in the real world they do, because the people are scared.”

Criminal solicitors will discourage clients to a plea of convenience, and to only pleading guilty if they are actually guilty.

Concerns were raised inexperienced trainee solicitors were unable to find the balance when talking to a client, to get them to plead guilty if they had done it early enough to benefit from the discount on sentence, but not encouraging them to do so when they were scared, unsure and innocent.

"It would take me hours to talk about the ways [having less experience] impacts,” the solicitor says. “We do most of the client meetings, including initial instructions.

"They come in waving a bail undertaking, been arrested for something a month ago, they’ve got to appear in court within 28 days.

"That first meeting is critical, where you’re trying to run through everything about what that charge could be about, know all of the financial information to see if they’re eligible for legal aid or not, and also give them advice initially, should you plead or should you not.

"It’s a critical decision in someone’s life. And we’re doing that.”

What is the solution?

"I think there needs to be more protection for trainees from this early admission being, quite frankly, not abused in a mean way, but used as a crux to prop up and clear this backlog.

"I think it was introduced with good intentions, but it has unfortunately, rather than being the exception of outstanding trainees, it’s now becoming the standard. You all get in after three months.

"Where’s the protection for us that want to push back against it and say ‘I’d really rather not, I don’t feel ready’?

"I do sympathise with firms. They literally don’t have enough bodies to do the work.

"We have no qualified solicitors that want to stay in criminal defence work because it’s badly paid, such s**t conditions and endless hours.”

However, the anonymous solicitor concludes putting high levels of responsibility and a large workload on trainees will ultimately lead to failings for individuals seeking justice. “It’s a disaster waiting to happen,” they say.

Scottish Solicitors Bar Association

Julia McPartlin, president of the Scottish Solicitors Bar Association, said: “Initially we thought the early admittance was a good idea, trainees waiting a whole year before appearing in court was too restrictive.

"Firms were already stretched and struggling to maintain experienced staff.

"I really do sympathise [with trainees]. It’s scary when you’re new and making decisions that have huge consequences.

"There’s not a quick fix. This hasn’t happened overnight, it’s decades of underfunding of legal aid.”

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