Access to justice

Responding to the Scottish Government’s proposal to increase civil court fees by a quarter, Gordon Jackson, Dean of the Faculty of Advocates opined: “My immediate concern would be maintaining access to justice and I would be anxious to ensure no change would adversely affect that.” (Your report, 30 July).

Many clients believe that the biggest barriers regarding access to justice inhere in the incompetence, the ineptitude and the floundering numptitude of more than a few of Scotland’s ‘top’ QCS. Arguably therefore, Mr Jackson’s “immediate concern” is totally misplaced.

Furthermore, access to justice is regularly impeded by the bloated and excessive fees charged by advocates, QCS and solicitors. Significantly, the Scottish Government has no ‘proposal’ to deal with that problem.

The Faculty of Advocates compounds those impediments to justice by regularly exonerating those advocates and QCS whose conduct and incompetence ensured that access to effective justice for their clients was always a remote possibility. Droves of Scotland’s solicitors compete with advocates and QCS regarding the art of deploying incompetence and ineptitude to facilitate access to justice and their ‘regulator’, the Law Society of Scotland, is more than a match for the Faculty of Advocates in the race to exonerate hapless and hopeless lawyers.

More than a few clients are now convinced that access to real justice in Scotland will remain elusive while lawyers of any kind, are involved in ‘facilitating’ that access.

THOMAS CROOKS Dundas Street, Edinburgh