News In Focus
25 November 2010
SLAB takes over solemn cases
Responsibility for granting criminal legal aid in solemn (jury) cases transfers to the Scottish Legal Aid Board from today.
Previously, sheriffs decided whether to grant legal aid in serious cases, but the Legal Profession and Legal Aid (Scotland) Act 2007 provided for the Board to take over this function. It has since consulted widely on how it would implement the change.
The test to be applied by the Board is whether an accused can afford to meet the cost of their criminal case. The Board expects that greater consistency of granting against a standard means test will result in savings to the legal aid fund.
Another reason for the Government transferring responsibility to the Board was to enable greater verification and checking of applicants’ financial circumstances, with a consequent reduction in the risk of fraudulent applications.
The new application system will be available online. The administrative cost of carrying out these new responsibilities will be met out of efficiency savings within the Board’s running costs.
Chief executive Lindsay Montgomery said: “People are not entitled to have their defence publicly funded if they are able to pay for it. The change will make for more consistent, robust and effective legal aid arrangements which are aimed at ensuring that those who are able to pay for their defence do so. The Board welcomes the opportunity to take on the administration of solemn criminal legal aid to ensure both access to justice for accused and to protect the interests of the taxpayer.”
Currently if an accused has disposable income of less than £215 per week, and/or disposable capital of less than £1,664, they will be eligible to receive solemn criminal legal aid. If their disposable income or capital exceed these amounts, the excess amounts will be compared to average legal aid costs for the cases to see if they can afford to pay for their own case.
A review procedure will be introduced, and a further application can be made – or a previous grant revoked – where an accused’s financial circumstances change.