Monday, November 17, 2014

BILLION DOLLAR DRAIN: FMQ's & the £1.068bn Legal Aid of YOUR money paid to ‘struggling’ lawyers since 2008 financial crash is “unfit for purpose” says Law Society of Scotland

Over a billion of YOURS since 2008, now struggling lawyers want more. IF ANY public service in Scotland, the NHS, local hospitals, local government, schools, transport, local policing, care services, wildlife protection, otters, or even just ordinary Scots themselves had received over one billion pounds extra since the Financial market crash of 2008, they would rightly be grateful.

Everyone would be appreciative at receiving such an amount during the toughest of times, everyone … except, perhaps, lawyers.

Even though ‘struggling’ lawyers have received over £150million a year (some years, more) of YOUR money from the Scottish Legal Aid Board (SLAB), their self regulating & combined lobby group – the Law Society of Scotland have now described the massive annual public subsidy as “unfit for purpose.”

It just won’t do. It is just not enough. Lawyers cannot live on an extra £150million a year … especially when there are the likes of sole practitioners – a single lawyer, who walks off with £700K of it in three years, and despite feelings of fiddle, nothing is reclaimed.

The staggering amount of Scottish Legal Aid paid to legal profession since 2008 (figures provided by SLAB): 2013-14 £150.5m, 2012-13 £150.2m, 2011-12 £150.7m, 2010-11 £161.4m, 2009-10 £150.5m, 2008-09 £150.2m, 2007-08 £155.1m, making £1.06Billion (£1,068.6m)

BIG SPENDERS: Spot your solicitors & law firms who take home the legal aid pounds. From total figures of £150.5 million, spend on civil legal assistance was £47.8 while criminal legal assistance was a mere £94 million. Children’s legal assistance stands at £4.9 million. Payments to solicitors increased by 1.7% from £115.1 million to £117.1 million while payments to advocates fell by 21% from £18.3 million to £14.5 million. Payments to solicitor advocates fell by 4.2% from £4.5 million to £4.3 million and expert witnesses along with ‘court reports’ raked in £19.5 million of public money.

And what is legal aid anyway? It goes to lawyers. It does not go to someone who is trying to fight a case in court or secure justice for a case which could have been resolved if some lying toad in a public body up to their eyes in fiddled expenses claims had not covered up for someone else. It goes to lawyers for all sorts of people … even for those of some fraud rap business baron who jaunts off to Dubai on a luxury holiday after his lawyers took nearly £200K in legal aid.

Hands up any of you who flew off to Qatar for a holiday after pocketing nearly a quarter of a million in legal aid from taxpayers. Hello there, Mr Mafia gang boss. Ah, another .. this time, a drug dealer. Another one, a lawyer. And there at the back, is a QC, with a fresh tan after coming back from the Cayman Islands.

No ordinary people then. Not the builder’s labourer next door who has been fighting for legal aid funding after his young child was overdosed with the wrong medication 22 times in hospital and the hospital’s lawyers spent 3 years lying about it.

Strange, that. Isn’t it. Legal Aid for all, Legal Aid for justice. Legal Aid for ordinary Scots. Not really.

Then, there are the judges who sit there hearing criminal cases funded by legal aid, not letting on they have financial, or ‘other’ links to the same firms in front of them, on either side of the court.

Almost laughably, the ‘good lord’ dressed in an 18th Century wig and flashy robe, complete with power bling, sits there in silence wondering if anyone will rumble the fact he received a fat cheque for giving a speech at a function hosted by one of the law firms taking tens of thousands in legal aid.

Never fear m’lud, your secret fat cheque is safe as long as you do not need to declare it. After all, what is a bung between friends, especially when it is at the expense of taxpayers, and justice.

Sure, there are lawyers and law firms who do their clients proud on civil or criminal legal aid … and there are solicitors who defend their clients against reams of somewhat dodgy charges just so the Crown Office can occasionally have a press release to claim a success which crumbles into falsehoods after further analysis. But this is not typical .. it is more the exception to the rule.

During Alex Salmond’s last First Minister’s Questions last Thursday, the thorny, almost un-debatable subject of the legal profession’s massive taxpayer bung was raised for discussion. Witness what happened next:

Graeme Pearson MSP LEGAL AID First Minister's Questions Scottish Parliament 13 Nov 2014

5. Graeme Pearson (South Scotland) (Lab): To ask the First Minister what the Scottish Government’s response is to the Law Society of Scotland’s discussion paper, “Legal Assistance in Scotland”, which says that the current system is not fit for purpose. (S4F-02386)
                   
The First Minister (Alex Salmond): The Scottish Legal Aid Board makes hundreds of thousands of grants of legal assistance each year, whether to help people to deal with welfare benefit problems or to help those who are accused of criminal offences to defend themselves. Expenditure on legal assistance last year was £150.5 million. The Scottish Legal Aid Board’s annual report shows that, since 2011, changes to the legal system have saved the public purse £52 million. However, there is still more to do.

The Law Society’s paper is intended to open up discussion. We have a shared perspective on some points, such as the need for simplification, and we will of course take a detailed look at the Law Society’s proposals over the coming weeks, with a view to assessing their potential impact on public funds and on those who rely on legal aid.

Graeme Pearson: The First Minister may remember that I raised concerns last year about proposed changes to legal aid. The president of the Law Society of Scotland said this week that legal aid cuts are likely to curb rights to justice for people on low and modest incomes who rely on legal aid. Does the First Minister agree that the prospect of citizens of modest means being denied access, as the Law Society suggests, while career criminals repeatedly access legal aid unfettered is indefensible and a foreseeable consequence arising from Mr MacAskill’s changes? Will the First Minister use whatever influence he has to ensure that the situation is addressed by his successor urgently?

The First Minister: As Graeme Pearson knows, expenditure on legal assistance in Scotland has been held at £150 million since 2007. Of course, that is not what has happened south of the border, where there have been substantial cuts. [Interruption.] Labour members should understand that, under the Barnett formula, the consequentials that come to Scotland are directed by expenditure in England. Unless they put forward a position where the great resources of Scotland are available for the Scottish people to direct our own spending, I am afraid that such matters are relevant.

Graeme Pearson should also understand that, although we were extremely interested in some aspects of the Law Society’s paper, such as the need for simplification, the paper has proved deeply controversial. He can see that from the debate that is opening up, in which people are pointing out that many areas of civil law are vital as part of legal aid assistance and criminal lawyers are pointing out that the fundamental right of people to defend themselves against a criminal charge is the essence of a free society.

There are no easy answers to the questions at present, but Graeme Pearson can rest assured that this Government and the Government of the immediate future will protect the right of the people of Scotland to legal assistance so that they can pursue their claims for justice.

72 comments:

Anonymous said...

Poor them.Both seem too scared of the Law Society to score any points for wastage of public money.

Anonymous said...

We get it.

The great Alex Salmond reduced to reading a speech written by the Law Society.

Who else is daft enough to claim £150 million handout to lawyers is the right thing to do!

Anonymous said...

Salmond "There are no easy answers to the questions at present, but Graeme Pearson can rest assured that this Government and the Government of the immediate future will protect the right of the people of Scotland to legal assistance so that they can pursue their claims for justice."

Who wrote this?A lawyer?The Law Society?Certainly not written by anyone actually seeking justice.

Anonymous said...

You are causing a few stressed heads at SLAB I hear..

Anonymous said...

Sorry folks that hospital we need has been put on hold because legal aid to some drug dealer and bent lawyer takes priority!

http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/health/hospital-bed-shortages-put-lives-of-3300-patients-at-risk.25886245

Hospital bed shortages put lives of 3,300 patients at risk
Helen Puttick
Health Correspondent
Monday 17 November 2014

HOSPITALS across Scotland were so full this summer that more than 3,300 patients had to be looked after in the wrong department for their condition.

The practice of "boarding" patients, which has been shown to increase their risk of dying, was being used regularly by health boards nationwide because of bed shortages in the warmest months of the year, according to an investigation by The Herald.

The research, conducted as part of our NHS: Time for Action campaign, also showed hundreds of patients were stuck in hospital when they were well enough to leave and bed occupancy rates ran as high as 98.7 per cent.

Theresa Fyffe, director of the Royal College of Nursing Scotland, said the figures were symptoms of a "sick system". She added: "It's time for the Scottish Government to stop hiding behind sound bites about protecting the NHS's budget, and actually make the decisions that mean sufficient resources can be put in place to meet ever-growing patient demand."

All mainland health boards were asked a series of questions to create a picture of how well hospitals coped during July and August. They revealed:

3,309 patients were boarded in the wrong hospital department for their condition because of capacity shortages.

1,706 patients were confined in a bed when they were well enough to be discharged in July and 1703 in August.

124 patients who were well enough to be discharged had been waiting for more than six weeks to go home in July and 122 in August

105 patients lingered in an A&E for more than 12 hours - most of them in Lanarkshire.

On average more than 98 per cent of beds were full in the Scottish capital's Western General hospital and almost 95 per cent were taken at the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary.

Anonymous said...

Peter - You are right to hammer away at this one.This is a shocking waste of public money in the past 5 years while all and sundry told us there is no money it was flowing to the lawyers without a break.

Anonymous said...

Was it too much to expect someone to stand up and condemn this as a total waste of money???

Anonymous said...

BLOODY BANG ON MATE WHAT YOU SAID HERE

Hands up any of you who flew off to Qatar for a holiday after pocketing nearly a quarter of a million in legal aid from taxpayers. Hello there, Mr Mafia gang boss. Ah, another .. this time, a drug dealer. Another one, a lawyer. And there at the back, is a QC, with a fresh tan after coming back from the Cayman Islands.

No ordinary people then. Not the builder’s labourer next door who has been fighting for legal aid funding after his young child was overdosed with the wrong medication 22 times in hospital and the hospital’s lawyers spent 3 years lying about it.

Strange, that. Isn’t it. Legal Aid for all, Legal Aid for justice. Legal Aid for ordinary Scots. Not really.

Anonymous said...

Salmond needs to get a grip and stop the money going to lawyers instead of waffle about discussion papers from the Law Society.

Anonymous said...

Almost laughably, the ‘good lord’ dressed in an 18th Century wig and flashy robe, complete with power bling, sits there in silence wondering if anyone will rumble the fact he received a fat cheque for giving a speech at a function hosted by one of the law firms taking tens of thousands in legal aid.

LOL!
wonder how the judges like your very apt description of their judicial garb!

Anonymous said...

Replace "Law Society" with "Bank stole £1 Billion from Scotland" and compare the reaction of politicians.

Disappointing this goes on and on unchallenged.

Anonymous said...

just a ridiculous amount of money on lawyers in Scotland what a friggin waste

Anonymous said...

The Law Society of Scotland operate the Scottish Legal Aid Board Fund like a salary bonus for Scottish lawyers?

If you are forced into a Court and do not have a means to pay, you go to a lawyer and they tell you that yes you can get Legal Aid, just sign on the dotted line?

You sign on the line and from that moment forward your best interests are a hostage to fortune, with the Scottish lawyers raping a fortune from the system?

Not many will know that it is common place for lawyers to tell you that you need a Counsel (Advocate) and in order to hire the Counsel your lawyer has to appoint a firm of Edinburgh lawyers, who act as a go between between your lawyer and the Counsel?

There are two reasons for this dog-legged ham-fisted approach?

A) to add another couple of fee-charging hangers-on to your case, so that they can screw suitcases of cash from the Scottish Tax-Payer, and

B) to act as an unnecessary and undesireable further level of Scottish lawyer beurocracy, so that when your case is binned and they get their free pay-out regardless of them ruining your case, it becomes extremely difficult to identify who to Sue as each level of beurocratic Scottish lawyer all blame each other, so that you have to take them all to court to try to get reparation and in doing so, they can hire more Scottish lawyers, Edinburgh Agent lawyers and Counsels, where they trap you in the Scottish Court System for years, aided and abetted by Scottish Judges so that they run up a huge bill and you find that your case is defeated by a Scottish Judge sympathetic to his lawyer colleague's greed and you end up forking out the best part of one million Pounds, when you should have received justice?

The problem is that Scottish Justice does not mean what the vast majority of Scots think?

Scottish Justice means a process whereby Scottish lawyers in their different guises put you through their process that has no concern for your well being or rights so that they can extract as much money as they can?

Anonymous said...

Even the untouchable Eck reduced to whispers by the Law Society paper.What a laugh.

Anonymous said...

What the f8ck has the Barnett Formula got to do with Scottish Legal Aid?

Is he saying if the Scottish Government get more money handed out via BF there will be even more handed out to lawyers via Legal Aid?

Get your priorities right Alex.Scots first not lawyers first.

Anonymous said...

Salmond - "The Scottish Legal Aid Board’s annual report shows that, since 2011, changes to the legal system have saved the public purse £52 million. However, there is still more to do."

Saved £52 million from 2011? Is this something to brag about when most of it is going on crooks drug dealers and murderers?

Come off it Alex.A billion since 2008 and Legal Aid are trying to hit us with spin about saving £52m.Pathetic.

Anonymous said...

When exactly did it become some weird Scottish legal right for lawyers to steal billions from taxpayers?

They are not doing any good for the community so why let this state backed robbery go on?

Anonymous said...

Anonymous said...
You are causing a few stressed heads at SLAB I hear..

17 November 2014 16:48
()()()()(()(()()()(()()()()()()()()()

The SLAB is controlled lock stock and barrel by the Law Society of Scotland.

Anonymous said...

Yes quite right!They should be made to pay back every penny!Lawyers and drug dealers do NOT come first in Scotland!

Anonymous said...

Alex sold his soul to the Law Society of Scotland years ago in the mistaken belief that they would fight for Scotland to get a fair settlement in the breakaway for the rest of the UK?

Of course, this could not be further from the truth?

The Law Society of Scotland have grabbed extreme power on the back of this promise, when we all know that if/ when Scotland negotiates with English lawyers for a fair split, our Law Society of Scotland will sell us all down the river, while they laugh all the way to the bank at how stupid we were for trusting them and for handing them so much omnipotent power, where they can break the law with impunity in their further pursuit of power?

Anonymous said...

Anonymous said...
Salmond - "The Scottish Legal Aid Board’s annual report shows that, since 2011, changes to the legal system have saved the public purse £52 million. However, there is still more to do."

Saved £52 million from 2011? Is this something to brag about when most of it is going on crooks drug dealers and murderers?

Come off it Alex.A billion since 2008 and Legal Aid are trying to hit us with spin about saving £52m.Pathetic.

17 November 2014 20:06
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

This is analogous to the Police releasing a public statement after the latest Gold Bullion theft, 'just to let everyone know that we have done a great job in recovering a rucksack full of Tenners that the bank thieves dropped out the back of their getaway van'

'Haven't we done well?'

'But we aim to do better the next time...'


They must think we were born yesterday!

Anonymous said...

Q. Why does the SLAB not give the Legal Aid money directly to the Client?


Q. Why does the Client NEVER see the fee notes from all of these different Scottish lawyers?


Q. How can the SLAB claim to be satisfying the requirements of the law, when they NEVER contact the Client to attempt to verify the number of and quantum of these fee notes to check they are valid and to corroborate the fee notes?


A. Because it is a big fat FRAUD and the Law Society operate it as a free cash withdrawal service for their members?

Everyone knows about it but the Law Society of Scotland are above the law in Scotland and the police are forbidden from arresting the ring-leaders?

Anonymous said...

No easy answer Alex?
Aye right.

Turn off the money tap to your pals at the Law Society.Its not your money.Its ours.All you do is spend it.

No one except lawyers and those who use lawyers against others supports this amount of our money handed over to lawyers.

There is no pretext about justice.Justice is a myth put forward for people to waste their lives in court after being groomed by a lawyer who wants fees for your so called justice.

Anonymous said...

Dont know if you are aware of following - COPFS media team churning out lots of pr to newsrooms trying to get coverage of POC seizures.One admitted it was ordered because of your £1bn headlines over fear press may pick up on it so well done you.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous said...

Salmond "There are no easy answers to the questions at present, but Graeme Pearson can rest assured that this Government and the Government of the immediate future will protect the right of the people of Scotland to legal assistance so that they can pursue their claims for justice."

Who wrote this?A lawyer?The Law Society?Certainly not written by anyone actually seeking justice.

17 November 2014 16:26

Yes easy to see a lawyer had a hand in it.

Next year Sturgeon will say there is a real saving and the figure will be exactly the same except we wont find out the size of the backhander given to lawyers for doing work other than legal aid.

Horrible thought but accurate.

Anonymous said...

The clip is like watching two rabbits tug at the same lettuce leaf.

We need politicians who will stop this horrendous waste of money to lawyers instead of people who just hand it over and drone on about how good is the justice system in their eyes.

Anonymous said...

"pursue their claims for justice"

Haha Alex.You are kidding.

Justice in a court run by a judge who refuses to declare his interests.

Total bs.

Anonymous said...

Looked through that list to see the lawyer my dad uses gets legal aid and he said they told him they dont do legal aid!!!
RIP OFFFFFFFFFFF!!!!and they didnt even sort out what he wanted them to do!

Anonymous said...

Graeme Pearson: To ask the First Minister what the Scottish Government’s response is to the Law Society of Scotland’s discussion paper, Legal Assistance in Scotland, which says that the current system is not fit for purpose. (S4F-02386)

Scottish Government reaction: Here's another billion for the Law Society!

Anonymous said...

The First Minister: As Graeme Pearson knows, expenditure on legal assistance in Scotland has been held at £150 million since 2007.

Dont think so if you check the figures from the legal aid board and who the hell justifies 150million to lawyers every year.

Anonymous said...

The SNP seem unduly keen to hand over all your money to lawyers.Must be some reason behind this.Do they use them to keep the natives in check?

Anonymous said...

If they can get Salmond himself to stand there and give the Law Society's viewpoint about legal aid money it proves beyond doubt justice is just about money for lawyers and judges and absolutely nothing to do with people obtaining justice.

Anonymous said...

"...this Government and the Government of the immediate future will protect the right of the people of Scotland to legal assistance so that they can pursue their claims for justice".......

'......As long as it does not interfere with the business of the Law Society of Scotland and its notorious insurance provider Marsh' is the unspoken part of Salmond's reply.

Anonymous said...

Lorna Jack was right to claim lawyers are a billion pound industry - she just forgot to mention they get a billion pound subsidy from taxpayers!

Diary of Injustice said...

@ 17 November 2014 22:38

Getting touchy over the money angle are they?

The Crown Office will have to spin out a lot more POCA cases if they are to make up PR for over £1billion in legal aid to the Law Society membership ... and not forgetting the Crown Office' own annual budget of around £108 million a year .. add to that the Scottish Government annual spend on lawyers £5-10million and tens of millions in private legal contracts, Lord Gill's £60 million redecoration of Parliament House and the Scottish Court Service on £70-80 million a year.

Anonymous said...

There is zero chance of Crown office recovering that much unless they start inventing cases!

Anonymous said...

I hope Lord Gill managed to get new curtains for his £60million court redecoration.Or where they on the extras list?

Anonymous said...

Many of the law firms on that list will have lots of complaints made about them and the usual going nowhere through the Law Society.I wonder how many of the complaints relate to fraud and still they are being paid all this legal aid.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous said...

The SNP seem unduly keen to hand over all your money to lawyers.Must be some reason behind this.Do they use them to keep the natives in check?

18 November 2014 10:09

Probably true!

Anonymous said...

Who on legal aid can afford to fly off on a holiday?

Anonymous said...

Scotland is a rotten place to live and a rotten place to do business.I am glad I sold up and moved.My troubles started with a lawyer and ended with a lawyer and that rotten stinking Law Society of Scotland did their utmost to ruin my business just because I caught one of their solicitors taking funds from our business account to fund his lifestyle.We complained were then made out as the perpetrators not the victim and then the Law Society told our bank to close our line of credit.A really nasty experience in Scotland will never return.Anyone reading this considering doing any legal business in Scotland forget it and go elsewhere.It is not such a great place after all.Bye!Hope you print this!

Anonymous said...

The comparison with the Edinburgh based Banker's 'bailout' is a very appropriate and apt one.

Anonymous said...

Try asking Salmond or Sturgeon for a £150m cheque every year to pay nhs staff who contribute a hell of a lot more to public life than shyster lawyers and see how far you get.Lots of excuses then layoffs so the party can pay off their precious legal enforcers.

Anonymous said...

It's as if they are talking about pennies not hundreds of millions which could be better spent on other things.

Anonymous said...

Good post.
Pity you dont write about other areas of public service.
I work for SG.Four of my colleagues were made redundant last year,received reasonable payouts.Said redundancies heralded by our minister as savings to public purse.A lie.
All four plus more from other depts moved to private company taken on by SG on public contracts to do same work.
Ergo no savings no real redundancies and no real job creation.
The extent to which this is occurring is mind boggling.Every department is the same.Cuts one week the staff back at work in a private company the next.It is now so obvious I am beginning to wonder if the "media" actually exist.

Anonymous said...

Not the builder’s labourer next door who has been fighting for legal aid funding after his young child was overdosed with the wrong medication 22 times in hospital and the hospital’s lawyers spent 3 years lying about it. THE POOR MAN HAS NO CHANCE.

Strange, that. Isn’t it. Legal Aid for all, Legal Aid for justice. Legal Aid for ordinary Scots. Not really.
=========================================================================================
THE POOR MAN HAS NO CHANCE.

The legal establishment is a lie, every one of them. They are all defenders of the powerful and see the weak as those to be exploited and expelled from the courts, if they can even get there. Lawyers are pure evil. They taught me that and I will never trust another lawyer, the ultimate bastards. Yes legal aid is available as are the courts, but accessibility to each depends on what you want them to do. That is not a justice system, it is a con.

Anonymous said...

Not the builder’s labourer next door who has been fighting for legal aid funding after his young child was overdosed with the wrong medication 22 times in hospital and the hospital’s lawyers spent 3 years lying about it.

Strange, that. Isn’t it. Legal Aid for all, Legal Aid for justice. Legal Aid for ordinary Scots. Not really.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
DAMAGES FROM THE MEDICAL PROFESSION, THE POOR MAN HAS NO CHANCE. DONE IT AND HIT A WALL OF RESISTANCE EVERYWHERE I WENT.

The legal establishment is a lie, every one of them. They are all defenders of the powerful and see the weak as those to be exploited and expelled from the courts, if they can even get there. Lawyers are pure evil. They taught me that and I will never trust another lawyer, the ultimate bastards. Yes legal aid is available as are the courts, but accessibility to each depends on what you want them to do. That is not a justice system, it is a con.

Anonymous said...

Beleive it or not the £60 million pound refurbishment of the Court of Session could not stretch to providing a public telephone on the premises - for that you have to walk down the High Street.

Doubtless the powers that be, completely divorced from reality as they are, assume everyone can afford a mobile phone.

Well, newsflash, there are plenty who can't, and I am one of them thanks to the fundamentally dishonest legal system in Scotland.

Anonymous said...

Good to see all this coming out now about judges and lawyers ABOUT TIME!

Anonymous said...

To the comment yesterday at 8.24pm

Similar experience.Was under the impression I had purchased a house only to find out my solicitor took the money to pay for his own debts.

The SLCC are of no use have spent half the time dodging queries and making excuses.In a phone call with someone at the Law Society they claimed it may be possible to persuade the solicitor to pay the money back but this never happened and now going through a complicated claim to the guarantee fund with little realistic hope of a settlement.

As you said in your comment Scotland is not such a great place after all particularly on matters legal.The entire system is geared so a lawyer can rip you off then get away with it.

Anonymous said...

You throwing around the 1bn figures has got people talking.I had a 10 minute earful about you and your blog today and all this money being wasted on legal aid!

Keep up the good work.

Anonymous said...

So what is Sturgeon going to announce?Another £1billion gift for the Law Society robber lawyer fraternity?or will it be tucked away in some small print and left to SLAB to announce as usual with the daft claim of saving money?!

Anonymous said...

Interesting the press always have a go at bankers bonuses almost on a daily basis yet legal aid stories hardly ever make it to print unless some big time crook is involved.Too many lawyers involved in the media process will see to it the coverage is muted.

As for these bankers at SLAB its about time legal aid was ended.There is no real benefit to the public in keeping people wandering around the courts for years on public money just to pay lawyers who dont give a damn for anything except their fees and why should we be paying for legal excuses for drug dealers murderers fraudsters and pervs etc anyway just an outrage and a money making machine for lawyers on the taxpayer.

Diary of Injustice said...

@ 19 November 2014 10:30

Email in some details so the public can read about it...

Diary of Injustice said...

@ 18 November 2014 20:24 &
@ 19 November 2014 16:31

Consider publicising your experiences, naming the law firms & solicitors involved and those who investigated your complaints ...

Anonymous said...

Will not name my solicitor in comment anyway have a claim in the court of session on legal aid after 3 year wait now am being asked for cash contributions direct to my lawyer's office and secretary refused to give me receipt so walked out with it today a letter came through from my solicitor saying he now wishes to withdraw from acting for me because cannot obtain legal aid I now suspect he is about to be found out because another client of his I know personally has just had the same done to them after refusing to give cash do I report it to legal aid or you?

Anonymous said...

Diary of Injustice said...
@ 17 November 2014 22:38

Getting touchy over the money angle are they?

The Crown Office will have to spin out a lot more POCA cases if they are to make up PR for over £1billion in legal aid to the Law Society membership ... and not forgetting the Crown Office' own annual budget of around £108 million a year .. add to that the Scottish Government annual spend on lawyers £5-10million and tens of millions in private legal contracts, Lord Gill's £60 million redecoration of Parliament House and the Scottish Court Service on £70-80 million a year.

18 November 2014 11:49
//////////////////////////////////////////

You forgot the millions of pounds defrauded from the tax payer by Scottish lawyers over the Scottish Parliament building.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous said...
There is zero chance of Crown office recovering that much unless they start inventing cases!

18 November 2014 12:41
£££££££££££££££££££££

Don't give them any ideas...

Anonymous said...

Scotland is a rotten place to live and a rotten place to do business.I am glad I sold up and moved.My troubles started with a lawyer and ended with a lawyer and that rotten stinking Law Society of Scotland did their utmost to ruin my business just because I caught one of their solicitors taking funds from our business account to fund his lifestyle.We complained were then made out as the perpetrators not the victim and then the Law Society told our bank to close our line of credit.A really nasty experience in Scotland will never return.Anyone reading this considering doing any legal business in Scotland forget it and go elsewhere.It is not such a great place after all.Bye!Hope you print this!

18 November 2014 20:24
----------------------------------

The Law Society of Scotland are an overt and ruthless criminal organisation?

They do not have to comply with any law and they are saved from prosecution on a regular basis by the friends at the Crown Office?

When a Scottish lawyer steals your cash and gets caught, the Law Society of Scotland never report their member to the police, instead they cut deals with the Crown Office lawyers to get them off the hook?

Anonymous said...

Anonymous said...
Good post.
Pity you dont write about other areas of public service.
I work for SG.Four of my colleagues were made redundant last year,received reasonable payouts.Said redundancies heralded by our minister as savings to public purse.A lie.
All four plus more from other depts moved to private company taken on by SG on public contracts to do same work.
Ergo no savings no real redundancies and no real job creation.
The extent to which this is occurring is mind boggling.Every department is the same.Cuts one week the staff back at work in a private company the next.It is now so obvious I am beginning to wonder if the "media" actually exist.

19 November 2014 10:30
()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()(£)

Now we are getting near the truth. Fraud being perpetrated to rob the tax payer and get the Law Society of Scotland to slap a 'D' Notice on every newspaper and Newsmedia outlet so that the toe the line?

Anonymous said...

Anonymous said...
Not the builder’s labourer next door who has been fighting for legal aid funding after his young child was overdosed with the wrong medication 22 times in hospital and the hospital’s lawyers spent 3 years lying about it. THE POOR MAN HAS NO CHANCE.

Strange, that. Isn’t it. Legal Aid for all, Legal Aid for justice. Legal Aid for ordinary Scots. Not really.
=========================================================================================
THE POOR MAN HAS NO CHANCE.

The legal establishment is a lie, every one of them. They are all defenders of the powerful and see the weak as those to be exploited and expelled from the courts, if they can even get there. Lawyers are pure evil. They taught me that and I will never trust another lawyer, the ultimate bastards. Yes legal aid is available as are the courts, but accessibility to each depends on what you want them to do. That is not a justice system, it is a con.

19 November 2014 12:17
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The legal system in Scotland is hopelessly corrupt and Scottish lawyers are grabbing as much cash as they can as quick as they can before they get stopped.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous said...
To the comment yesterday at 8.24pm

Similar experience.Was under the impression I had purchased a house only to find out my solicitor took the money to pay for his own debts.

The SLCC are of no use have spent half the time dodging queries and making excuses.In a phone call with someone at the Law Society they claimed it may be possible to persuade the solicitor to pay the money back but this never happened and now going through a complicated claim to the guarantee fund with little realistic hope of a settlement.

As you said in your comment Scotland is not such a great place after all particularly on matters legal.The entire system is geared so a lawyer can rip you off then get away with it.

19 November 2014 16:31
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Same story as mine.

I have news for you, there is no such thing as the Guarantee Fund.

It is common knowledge amongst Scottish lawyers who jokingly refer to it as the Brigadoon Fund.

Because it is a figment of the Public's imagination and only exists for one day every hundred years!

Anonymous said...

Anonymous said...
Interesting the press always have a go at bankers bonuses almost on a daily basis yet legal aid stories hardly ever make it to print unless some big time crook is involved.Too many lawyers involved in the media process will see to it the coverage is muted.

As for these bankers at SLAB its about time legal aid was ended.There is no real benefit to the public in keeping people wandering around the courts for years on public money just to pay lawyers who dont give a damn for anything except their fees and why should we be paying for legal excuses for drug dealers murderers fraudsters and pervs etc anyway just an outrage and a money making machine for lawyers on the taxpayer.

20 November 2014 10:43
££££££££££££££££££££££

You hit the nail on the head.

The Scottish Legal Aid Board Legal Aid Fund is not intended for access to justice for the Public.

It exists entirely to fund Scottish lawyers who feel they are owed a free luncheon and more from the Scottish Public just because they are a Scottish lawyer.

If you scrapped the Legal Aid slush fund over night, the Scottish Public would not use Scottish lawyers and without this money for nothing subsidy 75% of Scottish lawyers would go out of business overnight because they do not have the skill or wit to be able break even without their yearly retainer from the Scottish Public's hard graft.

Anonymous said...

They are all at it at the Law Society of Scotland.

Give them an inch and they will take a Mercedes, a BMW, an Audi and a Winnebago!

Anonymous said...

Neither of the two talking seem very concerned about this waste of public money.Is it the done thing in Scotland to just shovel taxpayers money at lawyers for defending criminals and then have a nice chat about it in your parly without much ado?

Blaming the Barnett Formula for Scotland's own legal aid spend is just sad.Presumably Mr Salmond wants to shovel some more taxpayer cash at the lawyers to keep them running?

Wake up Scotland stop wasting your money (and ours) on lawyers.

Anonymous said...

Is this the cost of keeping lawyers in a new audi every year?

How about they go off and do the lotto instead of leeching hard pressed public funds!

Diary of Injustice said...

@ 20 November 2014 21:08

Any suspicions of legal aid fraud by a solicitor should be reported to the Scottish Legal Aid Board ...however you should also contact the media before you do so to ensure people are aware of what is going on and any investigation by SLAB can be chased up in the public interest.

Email DOI at scottishlawreporters@gmail.com with the details your case and the other along with identity of your solicitor before going to SLAB.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous said...
Will not name my solicitor in comment anyway have a claim in the court of session on legal aid after 3 year wait now am being asked for cash contributions direct to my lawyer's office and secretary refused to give me receipt so walked out with it today a letter came through from my solicitor saying he now wishes to withdraw from acting for me because cannot obtain legal aid I now suspect he is about to be found out because another client of his I know personally has just had the same done to them after refusing to give cash do I report it to legal aid or you?

20 November 2014 21:08
======================

Their sick attitude is, if their colleagues are robbing from the SLAB Fund then they deserve to be treated the same, especially since the Law Society of Scotland have fraudulently inveigled this fraud for their members because their standards are so dire that this is the only way many Scottish lawyers can make money?

The Law Society of Scotland make the Cosa Nostra looking like choir boys?

Anonymous said...

Thanks will do.I fear SLAB may have it in for me if I report to them and no one else so will send you on the details.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous said...
Sorry folks that hospital we need has been put on hold because legal aid to some drug dealer and bent lawyer takes priority!

http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/health/hospital-bed-shortages-put-lives-of-3300-patients-at-risk.25886245

Hospital bed shortages put lives of 3,300 patients at risk
Helen Puttick
Health Correspondent
Monday 17 November 2014

HOSPITALS across Scotland were so full this summer that more than 3,300 patients had to be looked after in the wrong department for their condition.

The practice of "boarding" patients, which has been shown to increase their risk of dying, was being used regularly by health boards nationwide because of bed shortages in the warmest months of the year, according to an investigation by The Herald.

The research, conducted as part of our NHS: Time for Action campaign, also showed hundreds of patients were stuck in hospital when they were well enough to leave and bed occupancy rates ran as high as 98.7 per cent.

Theresa Fyffe, director of the Royal College of Nursing Scotland, said the figures were symptoms of a "sick system". She added: "It's time for the Scottish Government to stop hiding behind sound bites about protecting the NHS's budget, and actually make the decisions that mean sufficient resources can be put in place to meet ever-growing patient demand."

All mainland health boards were asked a series of questions to create a picture of how well hospitals coped during July and August. They revealed:

3,309 patients were boarded in the wrong hospital department for their condition because of capacity shortages.

1,706 patients were confined in a bed when they were well enough to be discharged in July and 1703 in August.

124 patients who were well enough to be discharged had been waiting for more than six weeks to go home in July and 122 in August

105 patients lingered in an A&E for more than 12 hours - most of them in Lanarkshire.

On average more than 98 per cent of beds were full in the Scottish capital's Western General hospital and almost 95 per cent were taken at the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary.

17 November 2014 17:02
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The Law Society of Scotland has zero interest in others. They are only interested in Scottish lawyers and believe that they deserve to take money out of others pockets?

Anonymous said...

Beyond despicable this amount of money handed over to lawyers in a small country like Scotland.Get your priorities right!

Anonymous said...

Hey Scotland!
Dont be so silly!!!!!
Stop wasting all your money on lawyers!!!!!!