Orkney legal aid row costs taxpayers thousands

PDSO solicitor is flown in after local lawyers pull out of duty solicitor scheme

News, 14 November 2005

Thousands of pounds of public money is being spent on flying a defence solicitor to Orkney because the local law firm that formerly carried out the duty solicitor role will no longer work at the current legal aid rates, the Scotsman reports today.

Kirkwall firm Lows Orkney pulled out of the duty solicitor scheme last December, complaining about the paltry fees paid by the Scottish Legal Aid Board. Duty solicitors receive £44.40 for the first case and £6 for each subsequent custody case that day.

A solicitor from the Public Defence Solicitors Office (PDSO) in Inverness is currently being flown out to Orkney to represent custody cases at Kirkwall Sheriff Court. So far, it appears that the solicitor has made around 24 round trips from Inverness to Kirkwall. Each journey costs the taxpayer between £100 and £300. There are about 30 appearances from custody in the course of a year in Orkney, on the most recent figures.

David Fairnie, junior partner at Lows, said that he could foresee a situation in 20 years' time where lawyers were not prepared to provide legal aid work, not just in Kirkwall Sheriff Court, but in Glasgow and Edinburgh too.

A Scottish Executive spokesperson said the use of PDSOs was being monitored and evaluated continually to make sure value for money was balanced against access to justice.