The Board's vision

• civil legal aid and advice and assistance should be part of a comprehensive community legal service which enables people to make informed decisions when faced with legal problems, helps them to resolve their disputes and does so in the most appropriate way and at the most appropriate time
• improved access to justice requires reforms to the civil justice system as a whole, rather than simply to civil legal aid
• all clients, whether paying privately or through legal aid, should expect and receive a service of appropriate quality from their solicitor, lay adviser or mediator
• a radical approach should be taken to the delivery of civil legal services which encompasses a broad range of providers without many of the constraints imposed by the present system

• the Board believes that the Government should be aiming to set out a comprehensive blueprint for the future. What is needed is new legislation which allows solicitors and advice agencies to work together without the constraints posed by present legal aid structures
• until such a blueprint is implemented, the Board believes that a great deal could be learnt by piloting different ways of delivering the services people need. However, the Board would not wish such piloting to prejudice the introduction of new legislation
• subject to careful consideration of their exact function and role, the Board believes that putting solicitors employed by SLAB under Part V of the 1986 Act into advice agencies could be of great benefit to clients of the agencies involved
• subject to proper quality controls, the legal aid system should recognise and pay for the types of service currently provided by non-legally qualified staff, both in advice agencies and within solicitors' offices

• the Board repeats its support for mediation as one method for the resolution of disputes and would like to do all it can to encourage its use
• solicitors, sheriffs and the general public must be made more aware of the value of mediation: many people are unaware that the option exists
• a pilot which actively encourages parties to attend mediation would allow a fuller assessment than has so far been possible of the benefits and costs of mediation and the situations in which it is appropriate. This would in turn allow the development of appropriate mechanisms for the provision and future funding of mediation services

• the Board believes that the current level of contributions is too high and suggests that The Scottish Executive should consider lowering them. This might contribute to a reduction in the number of rejected offers of contributory legal aid

• the Board would welcome the further development of schemes such as Compensure which offer both a voluntary alternative to legal aid for those who qualify and an opportunity to access the legal system for those who could not otherwise afford to do so
• nevertheless, given the largely self-financing nature of the very actions for which conditional fees are proposed, the withdrawal of legal aid from these cases would appear to be neither necessary nor desirable

• the Board believes that quality assurance for clients is as essential in civil matters as it is in criminal matters. We therefore consider that a Code of Practice and a scheme of registration should be introduced for civil legal assistance, similar to those coming into force for criminal practitioners on 1 October.

• the Board believes that fixed fees offer the best opportunity for controlling the legal aid budget, for forecasting overall costs and for reducing administrative complexity.
• the Board sees contracts for civil legal assistance as a key to maintaining and enhancing choice, access and quality in legal aid services: they would enable the Board to ensure that clients have access to legal services wherever they may live and that the services offered are of appropriate quality.

Read the Scottish Legal Aid Board's full response to the above consultation paper in Adobe Acrobat PDF format.