News In Focus
31 August 2006
Fixed fees not working, research shows
Research carried out for the Scottish Executive has concluded that the introduction of fixed fees in summary criminal legal aid has increased the risk of miscarriages of justice.
Fixed fees - £300 for district court cases and £500 for the sheriff court - were introduced in 1999. Research on their effect was commissioned from Cyrus Tata and Frank Stephen of Strathclyde University and submitted to the Executive over 18 months ago. The study has not been released by the Executive, but an article has appeared in the Criminal Law Review.
The findings, based on telephone interviews and questionnaires involving more than 150 solicitors and 17 procurators fiscal, reveal that there has been a significant reduction in contact between clients and solicitors. Some of those interviewed said they had been forced to cut corners in order to do their job.
Flat rate payments, the researchers found, did not act as an incentive for lawyers to prepare thoroughly for cases, increasing the likelihood that they would miss important points of evidence. There has been a sharp decline in the use of precognitions, with lawyers relying on the evidence provided by the police to procurators fiscal.
The changes were introduced to speed up the court system, but little difference was found in this respect. In particular there has been no increase in the number of people pleading guilty before the intermediate diet.
Court lawyers said they had warned that this situation would develop.