An activist group of lawyers has emerged in Scotland seeking to pile pressure on Holyrood to provide urgent support to legal aid solicitors.
The newly formed Scottish Solicitors Bar Association came to prominence this month when it posted a statement on Twitter, accusing the Scottish government of failing to properly distribute a Covid-19 resilience fund.
The association announced that practitioners across Scotland would take part in a one-day custody court boycott, which took place last Monday.
Solicitor Julia McPartlin, president of the association, told the Gazette that the decision to boycott was one for individual local faculties. The association’s role was to facilitate communications.
Scotland’s courts experienced widespread delays on Monday as defence lawyers took action in a dispute over support for legal aid firms struggling due to the pandemic. Solicitors said to be “at breaking point” boycotted courts across the country in a move designed to delay the processing of custody cases – the stage where an accused makes their first appearance after being arrested. The action came as it was revealed that a Scottish Government fund set up to help law firms in the wake of a downturn in court work has paid out just £2.3 million of its allocated £9m. A £1m traineeship fund is also yet to be implemented despite being announced months ago.
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