Legal Aid (Scotland) Act 1986
442.Paragraph 5 is consequential on section 14 of the Act. It amends the Legal Aid (Scotland) Act 1986 and is intended to replicate, in summary proceedings, changes made to solemn proceedings by the Criminal Procedure (Amendment) (Scotland) Act 2004. The amendments extend the availability of automatic criminal legal aid in terms of subsection 22(1)(dd) of the 1986 Act to solicitors who have been appointed by the court to deal with a summary trial in the absence of the accused; and disapply the provisions of section 31(1) of the 1986 Act, which allows the legally aided accused to select his or her own solicitor in such a case. If the case is proceeding in the absence of the accused s/he will not be in a position to choose a solicitor.
