Your responsibilities

As duty solicitor you must:

• Ensure that the firm has the correct professional indemnity insurance in place, as required by the Law Society of Scotland.
• Give priority to the performance of the services you are obliged to carry out under the duty.
• Attend and provide representation at any specified court or children’s hearings when required to do so, including providing such representation as may be necessary even where court or children’s hearings papers are not ready all in fulfilment of your obligations as duty.

Depending on the particular circumstances in any case either the Reporter or us will contact the duty firm to give details of the case. Your obligation is to accept responsibility for acting in such cases.

If the duty firm as a whole cannot fulfil its obligations in terms of the plan it must notify us immediately.

It is the firm’s responsibility to fulfil all duty plan obligations and to ensure that representation is provided where required.

If you fail to fulfil any duties under the duty scheme without making provision for another solicitor to attend, you may be considered unsuitable for inclusion in a future duty plan. In addition, consideration may be given to removing you from the Children’s Legal Assistance Register. Any other firm that, in these circumstances, is required to substitute for the duty plan firm is deemed to be acting as duty solicitor for the purposes of the plan.