legal profession

Legal profession

This section of our site provides information for legal aid professionals, such as solicitors. If you want to apply for legal aid, visit our getting legal help section.

ALL SOLICITORS - important notice

All legal aid business goes online in March 2011 - get ready now - more information

Criminal solicitors - Arrangements to provide advice and assistance at police stations

9/7/10 Update on legal aid provisions for attendance at police station interviews

The criminal legislation in the handbooks has now been amended in accordance with the Criminal Legal Assistance (Fees) (Scotland) Regulations 2010, applying only in relation to a case where criminal legal assistance is first provided to the assisted person at a police station on or after 8 July 2010.

Urgent advice and assistance increase requests- summary of calls to the Board to provide A&A arising from the Lord Advocate’s interim Guidelines on Access to a Solicitor - 16th August 2010

16/6/10 Letter to local faculties of solicitors to ask for feedback on the implementation of the Lord Advocate's new interim guidelines - we would welcome feedback from any solicitors who have comments on how the new guidelines are operating and how the legal assistance system operates with the new procedures.

15/6/10 Update on arrangements to provide advice and assistance at police stations

Out of hours solicitor "urgent increase" helpline - for solicitors' use only, for urgent increase requests.

For attendance at police stations please call 07711424344. Staffed Mon-Fri, 17.00-22.00 and Sat-Sun, 10.00- 22.00. Voicemail messages can left outwith these hours.

Latest news - see below		Quick links Legal aid forms and materials - download pdf forms and materials or order printed supplies Scottish Legal Assistance Handbooks - for all guidance Civil legal assistance handbook - 16 August 2010 Children's legal assistance handbook - June 2010 Criminal legal assistance handbook - 8 July 2010 includes new guidance on sanction for counsel in criminal cases Legislation - 9 June 2010 Our Handbook section lists issue dates and provides an archive of previous editions Current mailshots Keycard 2010 (for use only from 12 April 2010 - only available online) Category codes card 2010 (for use from 12 April 2010 - only available online) Equality card

Legal Aid Online Legal Aid Online users - login Legal Aid Online now available for criminal and civil legal aid applications - read update Go straight to the client mandate forms for advice and assistance and legal aid Not using Legal Aid Online? Read more or register now to get started using the service

Legal assistance handbooks The legal assistance handbooks have been completely revised and restructured from 12 April 2010. To see the new handbooks, go to the links in the right hand column of this page. All current accounts guidance is now included in the handbooks.

Civil simplification Go to our special civil simplification section to read more about the changes we're making to simplify civil legal assistance

Latest news

16 August Criminal quality assurance - questions and answers

9 August 2010 Compliance update - significant issues and trends arising from 2009/10 compliance audits

8 June 2010 Civil legal assistance update - Changes to the tribunal structure

17 May 2010 Conference on changes to Tribunal System

New improved legal assistance handbooks -mailshot of 8 April 2010 - read letter, or click on the links above to go to the new handbooks

Eligibility limits- annual changes April 2010 - mailshot - read letter, keycard, category codes card, equality card

Solicitor survey 2010 about to start - read more.

Grant funding programme 2009-2011 - successful projects announced

The Board has announced that 16 projects will share in excess of £2 million of Scottish Government funding, to enhance legal advice services for people affected by the economic downturn particularly those targeting issues such as repossession and debt - read more.

Useful links for material on our site for the legal profession

Contacts - Read our contact information for our applications mail and general mail. You can also get details of key staff in Who's who at the Board. Also you can find out how to order forms - order form for printers.
About us - you can find out more about the Board and read our Corporate Plan, Annual Report and service standards.
Online solicitor search - if your firm does not have additional details listed, or has changes or new offices, please complete this form about your office's legal aid services so that we can update our mapping service.
Useful links - You may find our links for the legal profession and other links including for online helpful
Help - If you need help about using any of our web resources, such as which software to use, visit our help centre.