Sheridan targets legal aid limits
10 Oct 06
MSP takes up campaign to raise financial threshold
Tommy Sheridan is to campaign for a change to the earnings limits that determine who can access legal aid.
The call follows Mr Sheridan's high-profile defamation court case against the News of the World. The MSP says he was only able to take on the Sunday tabloid because he was offered legal help on a no-win, no-fee basis.
He will be asking the Scottish Executive to reveal how many people it estimates have been denied legal aid because of financial ineligibility, and when the financial thresholds will be reviewed.
Mr Sheridan has also called for a specialised tribunal to hear defamation cases, to reduce costs for ordinary people since legal aid is not available at all in such cases.
His call for a financial review is backed up by the civil litigation lawyer Cameron Fyfe, who said the current limits exclude people with earnings of more than about £12,000 a year. In his view the threshold should be around £20,000.
Mr Sheridan said his case would have cost £40,000 to £50,000 to bring to court if he had had to fund it himself.