Society outlines flaws in Legal Profession Bill
7 Sep 06
Idea of Scottish Legal Complaints Commission approved in principle
The idea of an independent Scottish Legal Complaints Commission (SLCC) is approved by the Law Society of Scotland, but a number of points need to be addressed in the present proposals.
Commenting ahead of the results of today's Scottish Parliament stage 1 debate on the Legal Profession and Legal Aid (Scotland) Bill, the Society outlined what it feels are flaws in the bill.
According to the Society, the bill needs:
- to keep the distinction between conduct and service complaints
- to protect the independence of the legal profession from government interference
- to be compliant with human rights legislation
- to properly account for the costs of the new body.
A spokesperson for the Society said that it continued to be willing and ready to work with the Scottish Executive and the Justice 2 Committee over a number of issues. These include the difficulties involved in including negligence matters in service complaints; giving the SLCC oversight over the Master Policy and Guarantee Fund; and not providing the same levels of consumer protection for clients of non-lawyers to be authorised to provide legal aid advice and assistance.
The Society has also asked the Executive to explain the rationale behind the proposal to raise compensation payments from £5,000 to £20,000. Likewise the Justice 2 Committee called for clarification from the Scottish Executive over the arrangements for managing the professional indemnity insurance scheme (Master Policy).