Tuesday, January 5, 2010

SNP Government's Legal Services Bill opens up legal profession to third parties, time to break the cartel of the Law Society of Scotland members












Dear All

It seems that lawyers are not happy about the Scottish Government’s bid to break their cartel.

Gilbert Anderson said;

“The public interest demands legal services should only be provided by a strong and genuinely independent legal profession”.

The public interest is best served by breaking the cartel run by the Law Society of Scotland.

The Scottish Government’s plan would allow other organisations such as banks and supermarkets to invest in legal practices; this is a good thing as it opens up the closeted legal profession to competition.

The Unite Union which is a mouth piece for the Labour Party has said the proposals could lead to a system where legal services were provided on the basis of profit.

At present lawyers operate in exactly the same way in deciding whether they will take your case.

Can you pay them?

The Unite Union have put in a submission to the Scottish Parliament Justice Committee stating they would strongly oppose any plans which would affect the ability of working people and their families in Scotland to access legal services.

When the Labour Party cut the funding of legal services for the poor, the Unite Union was silent.

When the Labour Party set up how funding was diverted to specific groups effectively freezing out ordinary people, the Unite Union was silent.

It is pretty sick; they should be claiming to stand up for ordinary people now!

In their submission they claim;

"The provisions of the Legal Services Bill will create an open-door for third parties with only profit on their agenda to influence, shape and dominate our justice system."

So, why do they want to restrict choice and keep the cartel of the Law Society of Scotland?

The Labour Party is full of middle class lawyers who benefit from the present arrangement.

One thing which isn’t well publicised by the Law Society of Scotland is the number of crooked lawyers that they still allow to continue to practice.

http://www.sacl.info/

It is time to break the cartel, it’s time to open up competition; the people against the Legal Services Bill are the same people who want restricted services to the public.

Yours sincerely

George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University

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