Defence lawyers to boycott complex domestic abuse cases in legal aid dispute

Defence lawyers will boycott certain domestic abuse cases in Scottish courts, in an escalation of the dispute over legal aid payments.

The Scottish Solicitors Bar Association (SSBA) has repeatedly said that legal aid funding is inadequate.

Its members will no longer take on cases where the accused is charged under Section 1 of the Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Act 2018, which introduced a new offence of “coercive control”.

The SSBA says these types of cases involve significantly more work than others.

In March, Community Safety Minister, Ashten Regan, said the Scottish Government would offer a “significant” increase in legal aid fees on top of a 5% rise due to go ahead in April.

The SSBA said this failed to address the long-running underfunding of the sector and recent increases in fee rates have been eaten up by inflation.

It said: “There was a 25% reduction in the number of solicitors engaged in legal aid work over the 10 years prior to the pandemic.

“That pattern has been exacerbated in recent years. The Scottish Government have made incremental increases to the fixed fee paid in the bulk of criminal cases but, when inflation is considered, the fee has dropped by almost half in real terms.

“This means that it is no longer financially viable for legal aid practitioners to take on complex cases at legal aid rates.”

Solicitors have now taken the “difficult, but necessary” decision to refuse to act in certain domestic abuse cases, the SSBA said.

The organisation’s statement continued: “Offences under Section 1 of the 2018 Act are inherently complex and involve significantly more work than most summary cases.

“For example, the same fee is payable for a summary case alleging a single punch on a specific date and time as is payable for an allegation under Section 1 of the 2018 Act which must relate to behaviour over a period of time (which could be years) and which refers to multiple incidents.

“The fees payable for legal aid work are derisory.

“As a profession, we cannot undertake complex cases for a fixed fee rate which was set decades ago and was never intended to include such complex and lengthy cases.”

A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “We are aware of the further disruptive action planned by the profession, and that this will target, specifically, cases involving some of the most vulnerable victims and those accused who are explicitly barred from representing themselves.

“We have provided a 5% increase to all legal aid fees in 2021, with a further 5% increase from April this year.

“An offer of a further increase of up to 7.5% has been rejected by the profession. It is simply not possible to provide the 50% increase sought by the profession.

“The Cabinet Secretary met with the Law Society president last week to discuss options to move this agenda forward, including a proposal for mediation or conciliation. This offer remains in place.

“While we remain committed to continuing our dialogue with the profession on a way forward, we are considering appropriate actions that we can take to mitigate the impact of this action and will work with willing partners to do that.”