Legal aid reform: discussion paper - easy read

Legal Aid Reform Discussion Paper - Easy Read version

A Vision for Reform of Legal Aid

Legal aid is legal help that is paid for by public money. It is an important part of a fair society. In 2019 the Scottish Government had an independent review of the Legal Aid system done.

Scotland’s system does not limit the amount of money spent on Legal Aid. This is an important part which should still be included in the future system.

The Scottish Government thinks that most legal aid services should continue to be provided by private law firms.

The Reasons for Change

The public wants public services like education, NHS and police to work well. They want them to meet their needs. They also expect services to be run well and expect to know how public money is being spent.

The review said that change is needed to make sure we have a better legal aid system. It should support people who are facing different challenges.

Reform Actions 2025-2026

Legal services are given by different organisations such as private law firms, organisations that are not for profit or the Scottish Legal Aid Board (SLAB).

Most legal aid services are given by solicitors who apply for funding for the individual case. This is called judicare.

Making Judicare Simpler

The current rules about judicare are quite complicated. They cover:

• who can apply
• what work can be done
• how much will be paid.

Making rules simpler will make it easier to understand. We want to start making these changes in 2025.

The changes will make it easier for providers of legal services to support their clients under Legal Aid. This will mean people can access the legal services they need more easily.

Payment - Research and Review

The review said there should be a fair system for payments and funding. That is why we set up a Legal Aid Payment Review panel. This met for the first time in 2019 and reported in 2021.

The Panel’s report said that more information is needed to review payments and funding.

This work will help develop a way to review legal aid payments regularly. We need more options for how to do this. The Government agreed to provide those in 2025.

Developing a Future Legal Aid System – 2025 Onwards

There are bigger changes needed to build a system for the future. We will need new laws about Legal Aid to make that system happen.

Finding the best funding methods

We want to improve the way funding works for legal aid. We need a more flexible system with more options. This will address different challenges and meet the needs of more people.

Judicare is a flexible funding system. It can help people get legal services for a wide range of reasons. But people do not always know how to get these services and solicitors can choose not to take a case.

In 2025 we will ask people and organisations for their views on the best ways to fund Legal Aid.

Embed the User Voice

The review in 2019 said that users of legal aid services are hardly ever asked for their views. It said that if users do give their views it is often about the service being bad not about making services better.

We will come up with a way of involving service users. They will be able to share their experiences of legal aid services and how changes to the services could affect their lives.

We will gather feedback, information and facts from a wide range of sources. We will listen to service users, voluntary organisations and local government.

We will take what we find out and use it to make the new law. This will help us make a new system.

Next steps

We need to get more views from people and organisations. We need to know what people think of our planned changes. We will do this during 2025.

We need to work with people and organisations on our planned changes to the judicare system. We need to see how we can involve service users in developing the new system. We will do this throughout 2025.