North of the Border
| Date | 01 May 1968 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0032258X6804100508 |
| Published date | 01 May 1968 |
| Subject Matter | North of the Border |
W.
A.
RATCLIFFE
Assistant Chief Constable of Glasgow
The Scots Law Times of March 22, 1968, contains some com-
ments on the report of the Law Society of Scotland on the legal
aid scheme for the year ending March 31, 1967. A single para-
graph manages to cover all the information in the report dealing.
with the number of applications received. There is no detail
of the financial cost of the scheme, although it might be thought
that this would be of interest to the solicitors and advocates who
make up the principal financial beneficiaries of legal aid. The
.remaining seven paragraphs deal with criticisms alleged to have
been made about the scheme,
and
their refutation.
One of these alleged criticisms and its treatment is as follows:
"The
first criticism was
that
as a result of the scheme
more
accused
persons were pleading .
Not
Guilty'
and were encouraged by their soli-
citors to do so,
and
far
more
accused persons were being acquitted.
This somewhat
odd
criticism came from the assistant chief constable of
Glasgow
and
it is
not
surprising
that
the
Law
Society consider
that
no
action is required."
There appear to be two parts to the alleged criticism, first that
more accused are pleading not guilty because so advised by their
solicitors and second that more accused persons were being
acquitted. Whatever the reason for the Law Society considering
that no action should be taken on the first of these points, it re-
mains true that every time an accused pleads not guilty more
money pours into the pocket of a member of the Society. With
regard to the second part this, so far as I can discover, has never
been said by any of the assistant chief constables of Glasgow.
The reason for all this defence of the legal aid scheme was a
speech made to the Glasgow Juridical Society in October 1966, by
Assistant Chief Constable Kelso in which he made some adverse
comments on legal aid
and
some other aspects of Scots criminal
law. This was fully reported in the Glasgow Herald and led to
considerable discussion in the press and on television.
Then, as reported in Hansard of December 14, 1966:
"Mr.
Hannan
asked
the
Secretary of State for Scotland if he is aware
of
the
dispute between
the
Glasgow police, advocates
and
solicitors in
respect
of
administration of legal aid
and
of
court
procedures; whether
he has received any official representations from any of their organiza-
tions
and
if he will initiate consultations between the disputants to avoid
any further deterioration of public confidence in the administration of
the law.
May
1968 211
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