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From The Daily Telegraph December 9, 1968.
SCOTTISH LAWYERS TO QUIT AID LIST
Daily Telegraph Reporter
About 90 per cent of the lawyers who take part in the
legal aid scheme in Glasgow courts have intimated their
resignation from the Criminal Legal Aid List and this
will take effect on January 2, 1969.
And there are fears that this could spread to other
district of Scotland. Unless there is a change of heart by
the Secretary of State for Scotland criminal proceedings
in the more important Glasgow courts will be disrupted.
The withdrawal would effect: the High Court, Sheriff
and jury trials, and Sheriff court cases.
The lawyers oppose proposals contained in an amend
ment to the 1964 Criminal Legal Aid Act which is to
come into force on January 2.
New System
These give a presiding sheriff-substitute or judge power
to decide whether or not fees payable for extra work
preparing trials should be paid. In the past such pay
ments were determined by the Law Society of Scotland.
The Glasgow Bar Association has informed the Glas
gow Legal Aid Committee and the Secretary of State for
Scotland about the resignation.
In a statement to trie Press last night the Glasgow
Bar Association says:
'The association gravely fears
that solicitors throughout Scotland will require seriously
to reconsider their participation in the scheme for the
same reasons."
They say that the certificate referred to which is to
be sought from the trial judge runs counter to basic
tenets of justice and "will lead to confusion and uncer
tainty
and will,
beyond
question,
involve
serious
practical difficulties."
From The Times 17th March, 1969.
SOLICITORS MAY 'STRIKE' IN FEES PROTEST
From Our Correspondent—Bristol, March
16
County courts could become impossibly overburdened
later in the year because solicitors may refuse to take
cases.
The British Legal Association,
representing 2,500
solicitors, today announced plans for collective action
in support of what they describe as a 15-year-old pay
claim.
Delegates
at
their
annual meeting here decided
unanimously
that
it would not be unprofessional
to
refuse to take new cases which they feel arc uneconomic
or have to be subsidized by other work. In exceptional
circumstances,
they decided,
it would also not be
unprofessional
to give up work already in hand for
existing clients.
Mr. Morris Williams, vice-chairman of the association
said: "We have been forced to take this action. County
court fees were set 15 years ago and are grossly out of
date. Every single solicitor is losing money in every
county court case he undertakes unless he can agree a
higher fee with his client beforehand."
He added that in his own practice overheads swall
owed 73 per cent of gross earnings, and with county
court work overheads were half as much again as the
fees received.
Mr. George Bates, public
relations officer of
the
B.L.A., which was
formed
five years ago,
said
the
association would have regard to existing clients.
Details of how
the "strike"' will operate will be
worked out by the executive committee this month.
From The Daily Telegraph 24th March, 1969.
SOLICITORS' VICTORY IN FEES FIGHT
By Our Legal Correspondent
Solicitors have won a small but possibly significant
tactical victory in
their long and involved battle with
Lord Gardiner, the Lord Chancellor, for higher fees for
county court work.
The County Court Rule Committee, the statutory body
set up to fix county court fees, decided unanimously on
Friday to work out proposals for new fee scales although
the Government has referred solicitors" pay back to the
Prices and Incomes Board.
In its original report last year the board recommended
a 55 per cent increase in county court fees, but said this
should be balanced with reductions in fees for middle-
price conveyancing.
The Government insisted that the recommendations
must be accepted as a package deal and delayed meet
ings of
the County Court Rule Committee and the
Statutory Committee, which fixes conveyancing fees, to
discuss new scales.
'No Right'
The Law Society maintained that the Government has
no constitutional right to fetter the committees in this
way. It claimed that the committees should first decide
appropriate scales which could
then be accepted or
rejected by the Government in the light of the Prices and
Incomes Board report.
Because of this deadlock a meeting of the County
Court Committee in December was postponed. Since
then the Government has made a standing reference of
solicitor's pay
to
the P
I B and a revised report is
expected later this year.
Discussions
in
the committee on how any
revised
increase recommended by the board should be appor
tioned begins on April 25. The decision to go ahead
reflects an apparent softening of the Government's firm
stand against solicitors' demands.
County court scales were last fixed 14 years ago and
solicitors find that almost all the work in county courts
is now uneconomic. Many have stopped taking county
court cases and a growing number feel there should be
collective strike action to force increases.
The County Court Rule Committee consists of five
county court judges,
two barristers, two county court
registrars and two solicitors, all appointed by the Lord
Chancellor. Solicitors are
the only profession whose
charges are subject to the control of an outside body.
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