Legal Aid Reform Consultation: Response

The Consortium has submitted a response to the Scottish Government’s consultation on proposed reform to the legal aid system.

We welcomed the Scottish Government’s commitment to retaining the wide scope of legal aid availability, and supported the increased availability of funding for people with a common interest in legal proceedings, such as Fatal Accident Inquiries.

However, we also urged the Scottish Government to recognise that legal aid is only one aspect of a larger system of costs which can enable or hinder access to justice. We asked the Government to consider court fees and other expenses (such as a lack of clarity around Protective Expenses Orders) as significant barriers to access to justice.

The full text of our response is available here.