Scottish Parliament Petition PE1197 - Expanding access to justice in Scotland

Latest submissions on this Petition can be read here :
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/s3/committees/petitions/petitionsubmissions...

Petition PE1197 by William Alexander, calling for the Scottish Parliament to expand Rights of Audience for non-lawyer qualified professionals to represent members of the public in their legal affairs which are currently the monopoly domain of solicitors who are members of the Law Society of Scotland.

Nigel Don of the SNP, who is also on the Justice Committee seems to think the Petition is all about letting individuals represent themselves in Court, which of course it is not.

Mr Don goes on to relate a lengthy story of an individual representing himself, who as it turned out was assisted by the efforts of opposing counsel, however the story was lost in its meaning as it had nothing to do with the actual aims of Petition PE1197, which are to assist in expanding the rights of qualified non-lawyer professionals in Scotland - a fairly easy concept to understand by most.

Summary of Petition :

Petition PE1197 is to expand the rights of audience of other qualified and regulated professionals in the Scottish Justice system, rights which at present are held only by members of the Law Society of Scotland and Faculty of Advocates as the rest of us know quite well.

You can read more about Petition PE1197 here :
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/business/petitions/docs/PE1197.htm
and a report on its aims here :http://petercherbi.blogspot.com/2008/09/parliament-to-consider-competition-in.h­tml

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Bill Alexander
• Petition PE 1197
• Access to Justice
• Law Society of Scotland
• Scottish Parliament
• Holyrood
• Kenny MacAskill
• Scottish Government
• SNP