The Civil Legal Aid (Scotland) (Fees) Amendment Regulations 2011

EXPLANATORY NOTE

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

These Regulations amend the Civil Legal Aid (Scotland) (Fees) Regulations 1989 (“the 1989 Regulations”), principally in so far as relating to the payment of fees to counsel.

Regulation 4 amends the provisions in regulation 3 of the 1989 Regulations relating to the circumstances in which a solicitor or counsel may elect to receive payment of expenses recovered in favour of an assisted person instead of payment in accordance with regulation 3(2). In particular it introduces provisions whereby counsel can request payment of the expenses recovered in respect of counsel’s fees in circumstances where the solicitor has elected to receive payment in accordance with regulation 3(2).

Regulation 5 amends regulation 8 of the 1989 Regulations by shortening the period within which a solicitor requires to submit an account to the Scottish Legal Aid Board (“the Board”) from 6 months after the completion of proceedings to 4 months, and by introducing the same requirement for counsel.

Regulation 6 substitutes for regulation 9 of the 1989 Regulations a provision specifying that the work for which fees are payable to counsel is such work as shall be determined by the Board to have been actually and reasonably done, due regard being had to economy.

Regulations 7 and 9 and the Schedule to the Regulations amend the fees payable to counsel for proceedings in the Court of Session and sheriff court by—

• amending regulation 10 of the 1989 Regulations so as to provide that counsel’s fees in relation to proceedings in both the Court of Session and the sheriff court should be calculated in accordance with Schedule 4 to those Regulations; and

• substituting for Schedule 4 to the 1989 Regulations a new Schedule containing separate Tables of Fees specifying the fees payable to counsel for proceedings in the Court of Session and sheriff court.

Regulation 8 amends regulation 11 of the 1989 Regulations by altering the circumstances in which counsel instructed on behalf of an assisted person is entitled to claim a payment to account of fees incurred. The position in so far as relating to claims by solicitors, which had previously been amended by the Civil Legal Aid (Scotland) (Fees) Amendment Regulation 2003, is restated.