Legal inequalities

The jealously-guarded principle that we are “all equal in the eyes of the law” has not applied in Scotland for some time. If you want access to justice in Scotland, then you’d better be wealthy.

The suggestion in The Scotsman (“Plans for student lawyers to plug legal aid cash gap”, 6 October) that students or third-sector volunteers should provide access to justice for the poor and vulnerable, speaks eloquently of the arrogance and elitist disdain held by the public-sector accountants and civil servants (who now set legal aid policy in Scotland) towards those who are not so fortunate as to enjoy a five-figure bonus scheme, a six-figure salary and a seven-figure pension.

The biggest legal aid cuts in a generation were passed in the spring of this year without as much as a parliamentary debate. Lawyers are now told to provide access to justice at rates of pay that applied in the mid-1980s and early 1990s.

Last autumn, when an independent report into the future provision of legal aid in Scotland was produced by myself and others, including many experienced third-sector workers, it was dismissed by the chief executive of the Scottish Legal Aid Board as “pants “ and “b******s”.

The report’s argument for a scaled down Legal Aid Board, allowing money to be relocated to front-line services, had clearly touched a raw nerve.

Eventually asked to attend a meeting at the Law Society’s offices to explain his sneering comments, the chief executive thought he might need to be represented at this meeting. But no law student or third-sector volunteer being available, he hired one of Scotland’s most prominent QC’s.

The hypocrisy and lack of high- level principle at the heart of legal aid policymaking in Scotland is worrying. One can only hope that these latest proposed changes will, at least, receive a debate in the chamber of the Scottish Parliament.

JOHN McGOVERN

Solicitor Advocate

Waterloo Street, Gasgow