Scottish Human Rights Law Group

the petitioner sought judicial review of the manner of introduction of the Criminal Legal Aid (Scotland) (Fees) (Amendment) Regulations 2005[1] which set the rates for counsels’ fees in the criminal courts. The Scottish Legal Aid Board purported to apply the new Regulations to all fees where the proceedings were concluded on or after 4 April 2005 which meant that, where a case concluded after that date, all the work done by counsel prior to the commencement date would be paid on the basis of the new Schedule albeit that it came into force after that work had been done. In some cases, the work in question would have been completed months before the Schedule came into force, resulting in the counsel affected receiving considerably less under the new Schedule than they would have done under the old scheme, albeit that they had undertaken the work on the basis of the applicability of that earlier scheme. Lord Carloway in the Outer House held that the fees for work carried out prior to the coming into force of the new Schedule constituted ‘possessions’ for the purposes of Article 1 Protocol 1.

Bailii Report