£1.8million extra for lawyers but SNP fail to address major problems of civil law funding & access to justice

Criminal legal aid lawyers received a big fat bonus from the Justice Secretary last week , with a rise of £1.8 million pounds of taxpayers money going straight into their pockets - no doubt to be shared by only a few of the top earners, rather than enabling the ranks of family lawyers to represent more people in court, as the Law Society 'claimed in various releases to the media.

Again, the Scottish Government demonstrates it can find money for lawyers but not the victims of lawyers, or anyone who truly lacks access to justice but why should lawyers get increase after increase of Criminal legal aid, when the Law Society's own research revealed that solicitors were getting more legal aid than ever and that savings on legal aid expenditure the Scottish Government were trying to make were 'a flop'. I covered that in an earlier article :
Lawyers protests over low legal aid fees revealed to be fake as Law Society's own research points to increase

I take it that saving the taxpayers money has gone out the window with the SNP on this one, preferring to fill the legal profession's pockets again with taxpayers money to satisfy the wallets of lawyers once more, while little is done to stem the rising tide of significant legal aid frauds by lawyers bent on fiddling more from the taxpayer ...

Civil legal aid, which the lack of is causing some of the main problems in access to justice in Scotland, received no increase at all, so yet again, thousands of people in Scotland who need to get to court to pursue cases in a supposedly 'justice for all' system, remain excluded once more from access to justice - with not so much as a cheep from the Law Society's twittering canaries ...

All the while the spin was flowing on this week's legal aid increase, being sold as an opportunity for lawyers 'to bring cases to courts which would otherwise not be heard', little mention was made of the Law Society continuing to oppose opening up the legal services market and thus breaking the solicitors monopoly on access to justice, and also not forgetting the solicitors monopoly on receiving any form of legal aid payment for client representation ...

Perhaps to mitigate Friday's announcement of an increase in Criminal legal aid, Kenny MacAskill, the Justice Secretary, earlier in the week attempted to promote 'alternative dispute resolution' or ADR, as a way of people being able to resolve disputes more quickly, by means of arbitration, adjudication and mediation ....

Alternative Dispute Resolution, while sounding good, sadly bears all the hallmarks of spin of the past, amounting to empty ideas unfit for the majority of problems which most properly, people require, yes, the services of a qualified legal agent & possibly access to the Court, and enforceable judgements, to resolve.

While Kenny MacAskill was promoting ADR last week, his Ministerial colleagues, such as Cabinet Secretary for Finance, John Swinney MSP, were advising people with disputes against the legal profession, to take the Scottish Government itself to court - this advice coming after Mr Swinney at the 2006 Justice 2 Committee hearings into the LPLA Bill, challenged Law Society Chief Executive Douglas Mill over the widely & well known interference of Law Society officials including Mr Mill himself, in clients access to justice & claims against crooked solicitors.

Forcing people to try to obtain legal representation - which has previously been denied to them for many years by a hostile & prejudiced legal profession, and then forcing an individual to try to take the Scottish Government to court on an issue the SNP itself knows very well is impossible to do, doesn't seem to hold very well for Mr MacAskill's promotion of 'Alternative Dispute Resolution', does it ...

Of course, it's not just lack of civil legal aid which stops certain people from obtaining legal services .. sometimes, it's good old fashioned interference from the Law Society of Scotland itself, where a solicitor who is representing a client, is ordererd to cease such representation ...

Everyone in Scotland is paying for lawyers to have a good time these days ... so why shouldn't everyone have access to justice ? particularly under an SNP Government which professes to have the best interests of it's 'own people' at heart ? but who are the SNP's 'own people' when it comes to law & justice issues ?

Finally, to end a look at last week's news, the Law Society of Scotland announced a 'North Korean' style consultation on opening the legal services market, seeking the views of just about everyone, as long as of course, you agree with them.

You can download the 'consultation' paper from the Law Society's website in Acrobat pdf format HERE - remember to give your views !

The consultation, latest attempt by the Law Society & some in the Scottish political establishment to stall implementation of the OFT's recommendations for opening the legal services market, will no doubt be subject to the usual round of 'opinion rigging' from submissions submitted by the legal profession itself, an example of which was seen during the 2006 Justice 2 Committee hearings into the LPLA Bill, which saw the Law Society flood the Committee with apparently pre-written submissions by Law Society officials, signed by legal firms instead .... oh what a deceit !

You can read through some of my earlier articles on the Law Society's attempt to thwart wider access to justice in Scotland here : Previous reports on access to justice & the OFT's recommendations

Perhaps we will have to be saved by the Westminster based OFT, if our own SNP Scottish Government is too involved with the legal profession to do the country right and tackle access to justice, and injustice ...

Following articles from the Herald :

Welcome for rise in legal aid fees of up to 7%

KEVIN SCHOFIELD

Lawyers yesterday welcomed a government announcement that the amount of money they receive in legal aid is to go up from next year.

Kenny MacAskill, the Justice Secretary, said lawyers in the most serious criminal cases will see the fees they can claim increase by 7% from April.

At the moment, top QCs receive £900 a day while conducting so-called "Category A" High Court trials, which include murder, culpable homicide and robbery.

A row broke out last year over the level of legal aid, with lawyers across the country threatening to refuse to represent people charged with sex offences in protest over what they claimed was the previous Scottish Executive's failure to implement a revised pay structure.

But speaking at a legal aid conference in Dunblane yesterday, Mr MacAskill said it was important that lawyers are paid "appropriately and fairly" for the work they carry out.

He said: "Scotland's legal profession provides an essential service, helping people at times of crisis, protecting their rights and helping businesses to grow.

"The work the profession does in advising, assisting and representing clients who could not afford to pay for the services is a vital part of increasing access to justice for all.

"This government is committed to ensuring that solicitors are paid appropriately and fairly for the work they do.

"We have already made improvements in legal aid fees for work involving adults with incapacity and vulnerable witnesses and have improved fees for some undefended actions in the sheriff court.

"This increase in legal aid fees for solemn cases is long overdue and is a tangible example of this government's commitment to the legal profession."

Mr MacAskill said the increase in fees, which are estimated to cost the public purse an additional £1.8m a year, will be brought in alongside substantial reforms to the structure of legal aid.

Taken alongside previous increases, the move represents an overall rise in fee levels of 25% since the new system of fees was introduced in 1992.

In 2004, advocacy fees were increased by 15%, while charges for waiting times and meetings with clients went up by 5%.

The following year, advocacy fees increased again, by 8%, while all other fees went up by 12%.

Lawyers have called for a more regular review of legal aid fees and Ian Duguid, the chairman of the Faculty of Advocates' Criminal Bar Association, last night said Mr MacAskill's announcement was a positive development.

He said: "On any view, this is very welcome indeed.

"Come April next year, it will have been three years since the last review of fees, so this is good news.

"I know lawyers are always looked upon as earning inflated fees, but when you're talking about criminal legal aid, compared to Northern Ireland and England, we are the poor relations."

Oliver Adair, the convener of the Law Society of Scotland's legal aid committee, said: "We welcome the positive announcement by the minister, and in particular welcome the increase in solemn criminal legal aid rates in a year of restricted public spending.

"The society will urgently consult with the profession and hopes that an effective, revised system for solemn criminal legal aid can be introduced quickly."

Law Society opens up debate on ‘Tesco Law’

BRIAN DONNELLY

The so-called Tesco Law' that would allow legal services to be provided by places other than law firms, such as supermarkets or banks, has been thrown open to a national debate.

The Law Society of Scotland yesterday issued a consultation paper which could result in changes to how legal services are delivered in future.

The society is looking for views from the legal profession, politicians, consumer groups and other interested parties. It will examine whether the rules governing law firms should be relaxed to allow the legal services market to be opened up to other providers who are already gearing up to offer legal services to consumers in England and Wales.

Richard Henderson, president of the Law Society of Scotland, said: "This is one of the most important issues to arise in the history of the Scottish legal profession and could result in far reaching changes.

"There is a growing demand for change both from within the profession and other interested parties, including consumers, and while we have embraced the need for change and have been active in driving this debate forwards, we cannot underestimate some of the challenges that must be addressed to do this.

"With any opening up of the market, we need to ensure that members of the public can continue to access legal advice locally and that protections for the public, currently provided by a strongly regulated legal profession, remain in place".

MacAskill aims to promote alternatives to courts

ROBBIE DINWOODIE, Chief Scottish Political

Court should be the last resort in settling disputes, Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill said yesterday.

He told MSPs that alternative dispute resolution (ADR) such as arbitration, adjudication and mediation could "enable people to resolve their disputes more quickly and effectively".

Building up expertise in ADR could lead to Scotland becoming recognised as an international leader in the field and somewhere to which global companies could take their disagreements, boosting the Scottish economy, he said.

Mr MacAskill said Scotland was "perhaps too reliant on traditional adversarial processes and laws.

"My aspiration is to make use of the formal court system the remedy of last resort rather than the remedy of first resort," he said.

Pressed by Tory MSP Gavin Brown on whether the Scottish Government would use ADR, Mr MacAskill said: "I don't think I can give that formal commitment because it depends on each and every matter. We would have to reserve the right to litigate and litigate urgently and immediately."

The minister told MSPs that at least one aspect of Scots law on arbitration dated back to 1695 and it needed to be modernised.

"The unsatisfactory state of the law here makes Scotland an unattractive place in which to arbitrate. As world trade continues to expand, there will be increasing demand for high-quality arbitration services to resolve cross border commercial disputes," he said.

He said an Arbitration Bill to modernise the system would be issued for consultation next spring.

The government wanted to develop a dispute resolution centre, which could attract international arbitration cases as well as domestic one.

"Scotland should be an easy place to do business and it needs the law and courts to back this up and make Scotland the jurisdiction of choice for resolution of disputes."

For Labour, Pauline McNeill said that at its highest level ADR was about "solving disputes and differences between commercial companies across national borders" but she said it could also help those who could not afford to take cases to the civil courts, including people involved in family disputes.

Injustice campaign ends in death of victim Stuart Gair as questions remain over Crown Office failings

For some in the legal system this week, it will be a time of celebration, as Mr Stuart Gair, a victim of a terrible injustice sadly died before receiving compensation for false imprisonment or a true accounting of why he went to jail and who was to blame for his injustice.

Mr Stuart Gair, who was jailed in 1989 for a murder he did not commit, died earlier this week of a heart attack, after spending 17 years protesting his innocence, and successfully seeing the Court of Appeal quash his murder conviction and the Judges attack the failure of the Crown Office to disclose witness statements to his lawyers.

A quote from the Scotsman newspaper article :

Jailed for life, he served 12 years but protested his innocence from day one. He was released in 2000 pending an appeal, but it took a further six years before his conviction was quashed at the Court of Appeal in Edinburgh in July last year. He insisted he had been the victim of a police frame-up.

Mr Gair, originally from Alloa, was cleared after it was ruled he had suffered a miscarriage of justice. In the judgment delivered by the Appeal Court, Lord Abernethy said it meant "the defence were deprived of a powerful argument on the crucial issue of identification".

Failure to disclose ... a common tactic of the Crown in many prosecutions has become an almost common factor in cases of injustice in the criminal legal system these days, and still the Scottish Executive Government have done nothing with regard to reforming laws on disclosure, although as recent reviews recommended reforms, we have yet to see any movement in the slow area of Scots Law on this issue.

I said earlier there would be celebrations in some quarters over the untimely death of Mr Gair, and I'm not just being cynical, I'm speaking from experience.

Those who caused Mr Gair's injustice, to be locked up in jail for a crime he didn't commit, will most likely be using his untimely death as an excuse to counter any call for a substantive accounting of their actions in this case - it happens all too often, a victim dies, and that is the end of the story, the people who are truly guilty escape justice and injustice continues with the silence of the dead, no longer able to question those who for their own ends altered the course of justice to injustice, a now familiar term in Scots Law.

Those who thrive on injustice, profit from injustice and cause injustice, can never be allowed to escape their crime, and those responsible in the case of Stuart Gair, should for all our sakes, and that of the Scots legal system, be held accountable for their actions of depriving an individual of his freedom, on the premise of a lie.

Articles from the Scotsman & Herald follow :

Innocent man jailed for 12 years dies just months before £1m compensation

TANYA THOMPSON AND EAMONN O'NEILL

THE victim of one of Scotland's most shocking miscarriages of justice has died, months before he was to receive £1 million in compensation.

Stuart Gair, who was jailed in 1989 for murder, died yesterday at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary following a heart attack.

Mr Gair, 44, who spent 17 years protesting his innocence, was last year cleared by appeal judges who attacked a failure to disclose witness statements to his lawyers.

Jailed for life, he served 12 years but protested his innocence from day one. He was released in 2000 pending an appeal, but it took a further six years before his conviction was quashed at the Court of Appeal in Edinburgh in July last year. He insisted he had been the victim of a police frame-up.

Mr Gair, originally from Alloa, was cleared after it was ruled he had suffered a miscarriage of justice. In the judgment delivered by the Appeal Court, Lord Abernethy said it meant "the defence were deprived of a powerful argument on the crucial issue of identification".

John McManus, co-ordinator for Glasgow-based Mojo, the Miscarriages of Justice Organisation, said he was with Mr Gair when he died.

He added: "This is a tragedy. Stuart had been waiting for compensation and the whole thing had put him under a lot of strain. He had suffered dreadfully, and had only just started to get some counselling."

In 1989 after a five-day trial at the High Court in Glasgow, Mr Gair was found guilty of murdering Peter Smith, a former soldier, who was stabbed in Glasgow city centre.

Mr Gair denied murder and put forward a defence of alibi, insisting he was in another part of Glasgow at the time. But he was convicted on a majority verdict.

He protested his innocence and campaigners rallied to his cause. Eventually, his case was sent to the Appeal Court by the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission.

Mr Gair had petitioned the Scottish Secretary over his case and was freed on bail in 2000. Identification was the key issue at the trial and lawyers acting for Mr Gair argued that, crucially, the Crown failed to disclose important information to his defence.

During the trial, a witness, Brian Morrison, who was 19 at the time, identified Mr Gair as a man he saw come out of public toilets and go in the direction of North Court Lane, where the attack happened.

In an initial statement, he said he would definitely be able to identify the two men he had seen and that one of them had threatened him.

But later, he told officers: "A lot of what I have already told the police is not the truth. I made up some of it to attract attention."

Mr Gair's defence counsel, Gordon Jackson, QC, argued that if this information had been available to his lawyers Mr Morrison could have been cross-examined in such a way as to show the jury they could not trust a word he said.

A note had been attached to Crown papers for the trial which said that at one point Mr Morrison had signed himself into a psychiatric hospital. It went on: "Morrison and his vivid imagination certainly set the police off on the trail of a red herring initially."

In the Appeal Court judgment, Lord Abernethy concluded: "In these circumstances, we have come to the conclusion that the non-disclosure of these police statements and other information resulted in a miscarriage of justice."

Sources close to Mr Gair said that, had he lived, he would have received about £1 million in compensation.

and now for the report from the Herald :

Miscarriage of justice victim Gair dies

LUCY ADAMS. Chief Reporter

Stuart Gair, the Scot who spent 17 years waiting to prove he was wrongfully convicted of murder, has died of a heart attack just 15 months after clearing his name.

Mr Gair, 43, suffered the attack on Friday while being filmed by Donal McIntyre, the investigative journalist. He was taken to hospital but died yesterday afternoon.

Last night, friends paid tribute to the man who spent 12 years in prison, wrongfully accused of murder.

Mr Gair was only 25 when, by a majority verdict, a jury convicted him of the brutal murder of 45-year-old Peter Smith during a knife attack in Glasgow city centre.

Mr Smith, a former soldier of West Plean, Stirlingshire, was stabbed in the chest at North Court Lane on April 11, 1989, and died later from his injuries in hospital. Mr Gair denied committing the offence, but was found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment.

He had put forward a defence of alibi, maintaining that he was in another part of Glasgow at the time of the murder, which occurred near toilets at St Vincent Place.

His fight to clear his name attracted a number of high-profile campaigners. His case was referred back to the Appeal Court by the Scottish Criminal Cases Review in 1999.

In 2000, he was freed on appeal, and began a lengthy series of court hearings.

The question of identification was the key issue at the trial and lawyers acting for Mr Gair argued that, crucially, the Crown had failed to disclose important information to his defence at the time of the trial.

During the trial, a witness, Brian Morrison, who was 19 at the time, identified Mr Gair and his former co-accused as two men he saw come out of the toilets and go in the direction of North Court Lane, a well-known hang-out for homosexuals.

He said he had a good look at the two men and studied their faces carefully. But in previous statements to police, he had given conflicting information.

During an initial statement, he said he would definitely be able to identify the two men he saw and that one of them had threatened him.

But later he told officers: "I have to tell you that a lot of what I have already told the police is not the truth and I made up some of it to attract attention to myself."

Last year when Mr Gair's conviction was overturned he said he was relieved but "shattered".

John McManus, of Miscarriages of Justice Organisation (Mojo), said the stress of being wrongfully locked up had killed Mr Gair. "All we can do now is hope his death will prevent other people having to go through the same circumstances without any support or trauma counselling.

"He was released without any support whatsoever. People have no idea of the level of stress this puts people under.

"Like all of those who have been wrongfully convicted, he was suffering from severe post traumatic stress and he hadn't even received his financial compensation.

"There has to be better support put in place to help people in these circumstances."

Mr McManus said he died at 12.40pm yesterday. It is thought the funeral will be organised by Mojo.

Lawyer who took on Law Society for clients ended up as dishonest as those he challenged

One of the more difficult articles for me to write, as this relates to a lawyer, Michael G Robson, who handled the case of the death of my mother at Borders General Hospital, and lied about what he was doing with regard to pursuing a medical negligence action against the Hospital.

Michael G Robson, formerly of Robsons WS, Ratho, had many a famous client who had problems with the legal profession. Iain McIntyre for one, was a client of Mr Robson, who tried to sue his lawyers for negligence, but was blocked from doing so by the then Secretary of the Law Society, Kenneth Pritchard, and his successor, Douglas Mill.

I was but another of those clients Mr Robson happily took on, with an assurance that work would be undertaken, and cases brought to court, among them, an attempt to do something about crooked accountant Norman Howitt & ICAS, an action for Judicial Review against the Law Society of Scotland in their handling of the Penman complaint & their treatment of further complaints filed against other legal firms, and of course, the case of the death of my mother at Borders General Hospital, from medical negligence.

In the end, Mr Robson did nothing on any of my cases, nor it seems did he do much, if anything for any of his other client, and ended up before the Law Society over several complaints from clients, including some from myself, over lack of action on cases and failure to correspond or take instructions.

It took the Law Society long enough to do something about it ... they wrote some 90 or so letters to him at his Ratho office, a situation which went on for almost a year. Odd, perhaps, that no one from the Law Society thought to drive a few miles to his office and see what was going on. Law Society officials were however, content to play the situation out for as long as possible, so all of Mr Robson's clients cases might just fall into time bar, thus preventing anyone from being able to claim compensation against the solicitors negligence insurance.

The Law Society, very craftily handled the client complaints against Mr Robson, finding in the main for a poor standard of service & conduct, and recommending prosecution before the Scottish Solicitors Discipline Tribunal for a number of those 'offences'. However due to the possibility of clients proceeding with negligence claims against Mr Robson for his conduct and citing the Law Society investigation and findings, the Law Society made & pressed charges of their own rather than refer too much to the way Mr Robson had treated his clients, in an effort to stall any negligence claims against Mr Robson which would ultimately have to be paid from the Master Insurance Policy - the solicitors professional indemnity insurance for negligence run by the Law Society of Scotland and Marsh UK - which has seen it's own share of corruption allegations.

Mr Robson was duly found guilty and the rest was covered in the media. Mr Robson however, did challenge the SSDT, which was reflected in newspaper reports, and a case which goes on yet to this day, delayed on many occasions of being off to tennis matches or meetings .. how the Court and it's judges sat back and allowed that is anyone's guess, but a good indicator came from a source at the Law Society of Scotland, who claims the intention of the delays is to make my case and any other claim against Mr Robson fall into time bar - the usual practice from the legal profession then.

Such was the complication of the case, and the worry of the Scottish Legal Services Ombudsman there may be a 'conflict of interest', my request for an investigation into the way the Law Society dealt with the Robson case was passed to the English Legal Services Ombudsman, who have had to sit on the sidelines and await a ruling from the court before taking up their investigation over 3 years since they were contacted to do it.

The Law Society of Scotland's Director of Regulation, Mr Philip Yelland, known to many clients who complain to the Law Society, wrote recently to the Legal Services Ombudsman's office in England, with as useless an explanation as ever, claiming the Law Society was 'powerless' to do anything while Mr Robson pursued the appeal against the Scottish Solicitors Discipline Tribunal.

In reality, Mr Yelland and his colleagues at the Law Society of Scotland, have been only too happy to see the case drag on, and myself be constantly denied legal representation, to delay and destroy any chance of a negligence claim against Mr Robson being raised - the same trick they play on anyone else who tries to claim against a crooked lawyer ...

Following is a list of the Court appearances of Mr Robson, with excuse after excuse .. which usually revolved around playing tennis ... some of the quotes below ...

"Mr Robson was unable to attend as his employers were contracted to provide his services as a LTA tennis coach to West Lothian Council."

"Mr Robson had a tennis training course in the North of England from 15th - 17th May."

"Mr Robson was unable to attend this hearing as he was attending a tennis leaders course. It was the first course to be run in Scotland and he had been committed since June."

What where the Judges thinking of allowing Mr Robson to treat the court like that, amid the ruin and harm he had caused his clients ?.

The Law Society of Scotland's 'prosecuting fiscal' in this case is PA Reid, 'Solicitor Advocate' of Messrs Fleming & Reid, 180 Hope Street, Glasgow - perhaps known to others who have made complaints against crooked lawyers and seen a 'result' in any 'prosecution' before the Scottish Solicitors Discipline Tribunal ...

Being slightly fed up with the way I was being treated, by the Law Society, the Court of Session, Mr Robson et all, I let slip the information, and at the weekend, the Sunday Mail featured the story.

Surely all this is a good example of why lawyers cannot be allowed to regulate themselves. Only fully independent regulation of the legal profession, will bring a measure of accountability & transparency to the way lawyers handle cases for their clients, and how complaints are handled when inevitably it seems, lawyers undertake very poor legal service.

Shamed Lawyer In Tennis Racket

Oct 21 2007 By Russell Findlay

Exclusive Brief Accused Of Stringing Along Court With Excuses

A SHAMED lawyer missed a string of dates to defend himself against complaints - because he was too busy playing tennis.

Michael Robson gave the crazy excuse to Scotland's highest court after appealing against a punishment for ignoring clients' wishes.

He was disciplined by legal watchdogs in 2005 but the ruling remained secret because he appealed to the Court of Session.

Robson, 55, missed a court date in April last year as he was working as a Lawn Tennis Association coach.

In May 2006, he went on a two-day tennis training course in England and that September he was at a tennis "leaders course".

Client Peter Cherbi plans to sue Robson for failing to act in a medical negligence claim over the death of his mother in 2000.

Mr Cherbi claims Robson's delays may be a tactic to avoid a court case.

He said: "The deadline for my action against Mr Robson is next year when it will become time barred.

"I suspect he is cynically playing for time. It is extraordinary judges should accept a tennis match is more important than a court appearance." In 2001 the Scottish Solicitors' Discipline Tribunal found Robson had ignored 50 letters from the Law Society, criticised his "cavalier attitude" and ordered that he work under supervision for three years.

In 2002 he was struck off but that was reduced to five-years of supervision on appeal.

He is banned from working as a solicitor as result of the 2005 ruling.

When we called Robson, of Ratho, Edinburgh, he said he would phone back but failed to do so.

Scotland's Crown Office gets away with murder - failing justice system fails everyone

If there's one common constant in politics or law, its the policy that if one fails, one has to lie to cover it up, and no amount of lies can be spared to cover it up, engaging anyone, ones colleagues, whole departments, even a few politicians, to sweep things under the carpet.

You don't need me to tell you that - you already know it.

Politics & Law go hand in hand, in each other's pockets, often with the same individuals appearing in both, lying for both, sometimes challenging the other, but inevitably pursuing their own ends, which more often than not conflict with the public interest.

We live in Scotland, a country which aspires to be more than it is, as any country does. A country which professes to be honest, but sadly is not. A country which claims to have an honest accountable justice system, but does not. A country which constantly tells us we are treated better than anyone else with rights, freedoms & values which many would die for .. but when we need those rights, freedoms or values, they are simply ... not there.

Our First Minister, Alex Salmond, wants Scotland to have a place at the UN, but we have a justice system worthy of a banana republic. We can't even look after our own people, nevermind poke our nose into what anyone else is doing or touting high standards of living when we don't have them ourselves. Okay .. ask for representation at the UN, Mr Salmond, but clean up our act first before you do so, because simply, we are not yet worthy if we have no justice in our land.

While we can't even treat the living well enough, Scotland's justice system treats the dead even worse, and that common constant between politics & law comes back to haunt us yet again, as the Crown Office, and even Police, wriggle their way out of providing decent investigations into suspicious deaths, claiming they did their best, when they did nothing, or actually made it worse.

As far as the Crown Office is concerned, when it is caught out in an investigation, or found to have failed in carrying out a proper investigation, lies and cover up is the order of the day. Even when a life is taken, lies still reign supreme in Scotland's prosecution service, and it seems, certain sections of the Police who would rather cover up their failures than broadcast them for all to see.

Here are two stories from Scottish Law Reporter, referring to weekend reports in the Sunday Mail newspaper. A sad indictment of the way Scotland treats the dead, the families they leave behind, and it seems, allows murderers to escape justice, simply because the Crown just can't be bothered to do the job it was put there to do ...

Mr MacAskill ? Where is Justice in Scotland today ?

Northern Constabulary guilty of failures of investigation in unexplained Wick Harbour death

A report compiled four years ago by Andrew Cameron, chief constable of Central Police into Northern Constabulary's investigation into the death of 24 year old Kevin McLeod, and kept secret until now, reveals a disgraceful catalogue of errors on the part of Northern Constabulary which remain without explanation.

The incident, investigated by Northern Constabulary as a 'sudden death', although long thought to be a murder, raises significant questions over the performance of both the Police & Crown Office, where it also comes to light the opinion of one of the prosecutors , Procurator Fiscal Alasdair MacDonald, who believed the death of Kevin McLeod to be suspicious, was left out of the report ....

Kevin Mcleod's family await not only an apology, but a proper investigation and accounting of what happened to their son.

The Sunday Mail reports :

Blunder Cops Rapped Over Dead Clubber

Oct 21 2007 By Marion Scott

Exclusive: Police Chief Accuses Officers Of 'Inexplicable' Errors In Harbour Death Probe

A SENIOR police officer has found colleagues guilty of "inexplicable" blunders in their investigation of a 24-year-old clubber's death.

Kevin McLeod's grieving family are convinced three men battered him to death and dumped him in Wick Harbour.

Now for the first time an official police report reveals damning evidence that Northern Constabulary were wrong to dismiss Keith's death as accidental.

The report by Andrew Cameron, chief constable of Central Police, was kept under wraps for four years and only released after pressure from Kevin's family.

It slams Northern for not apologising to the family and calls for a shake-up in the way they investigate sudden deaths.

Mistakes highlighted by the Cameron report include:

Failing to realise the significance of diamond-shaped marks on Kevin's body even after a procurator fiscal instructed them to treat the death as suspicious.

Failing to keep the clothes worn by Kevin at the time of his death as evidence.

Failing to photograph and record Kevin's injuries properly. Electrician Kevin, 24, was found dead in Wick harbour 10 years ago after a night out at the town's Waterfront Club.

His father Hugh and mother June have battled to prove he was murdered and not the victim of a tragic accident as police insist.

His spleen, liver and pancreas were ruptured and he lost so much blood he would have been unable to get up on his own.

The Cameron inquiry calls for Northern to review management of suspicious deaths, training and staffing.

Cameron stated: "The failure of the force to seize, retain and submit for examination the clothing worn by KevinMcLeod remains inexplicable."

He added: "The efficiency with which photographic evidence of injury was initially instructed and secured and subsequently assessed over a period of three years is open to question.

"It is not helped by what appears to be a lack of acknowledgement by the force and the Department of Pathology, Raigmore Hospital, Inverness as to the potential significance of the "diamond" pattern mark on the body of Kevin McLeod." Cameron concluded:

"It is this inquiry's view that had the existence and significance of the marks been properly recognised, the investigation may well have been directed differently.

"It is the conclusion of this inquiry that the McLeod family are entitled to an apology from Northern Constabulary over the patent lack of communication of their complaints."

The Cameron report was completed in 2003 but only given to the family this year following a freedom of information request.

A second investigation into Northern's handling of the case by the new Police Complaints Comissioner Jim Martin is expected later this year.

Kevin's uncle Allan McLeod, 49, said: "Even though the Cameron Report supports everything we've known for 10 years, we do not believe anyone will ever be brought to justice for killing Kevin.

"We know the names of three men we believe were responsible for Kevin's death.

"But we have not one shred of confidence that the police will ever do anything about it because they do not want to admit they are wrong.

"We have not received any proper apology from the force."

Northern Constabulary said: "As a result of this independent inquiry, all issues raised by the McLeod family have been dealt with.

"Consideration was given to where improvements could be made and these have been implemented.

"The case has been subject to a great deal of scrutiny and the chief constable will not be reopening the inquiry."

Riddle Of Prosecutor Whose Evidence Was Ignored

Oct 21 2007

Exclusive: Police Chief Accuses Officers Of 'Inexplicable' Errors In Harbour Death Probe

ONE man's verdict on whether Kevin was murdered is missing from the Cameron report.

The victim's family believe Procurator Fiscal Alasdair MacDonald could be key to mounting a case - but he was not interviewed by Chief Constable Cameron. Kevin's uncle Allan McLeod said: "We're incensed that the very man who believed Kevin's death was suspicious was missed out of this report.

"He should have been the first person to be interviewed and the fact he wasn't can only raise our suspicions of a cover-up."

Central Police said questions on the Cameron Report should be answered by the Northern Joint Police Board.

But the Northern Joint Police Board insisted they were "unable to comment".

In the report, Cameron claims MacDonald was "unavailable" to be interviewed. But in a further twist MacDonald has written to the McLeod family saying he would have been happy to co-operate.

He wrote: "Whilst I have no wish to add to the controversy surrounding this matter, I fear I must. I cannot imagine upon what possible basis I could be described as unavailable for interview.

"Despite researches, neither my office manager nor I have any recollection of any contact by the author of this report."

The Crown Office said they did not have "anything further to add" to MacDonald's comments.

Crown Office offer untenable explanations over Annie Borjesson death, withholds evidence & FAI

The Crown Office, who can always be depended upon to lie through their teeth when caught out in an investigation, have offered up the poorest explanation of anomalies to the family of Annie Borjesson, who died at Prestwick in December 2005.

When the body of the young swedish woman was returned to her family, Guje Borjesson questioned why her daughters hair had been hacked off, only to be now told it was the undertakers who did it, allegedly to present the body in better circumstances.

The death of Annie Borjesson, which has not yet received a Fatal Accident Inquiry, despite a complete lack of explanation for the death, raises many questions of why the Crown Office have been covering up what seem to be a catalogue of failures on their part, and of the Police investigation into the death, which has seen little or no accountability of events.

The family of Annie Borjesson await a proper inquiry & investigation into their daughters death and release of all the evidence in the case, along with CCTV footage, still under possession of the Crown.

The family's website for a campaign for an investigation into Annie's death can be found here : http://www.annierockstar.com

The Sunday Mail reports :

Undertakers Hack Off Annie's Locks

Oct 21 2007 By Marion Scott

Exclusive Mum Of Death Riddle Daughter Wanted To Buy Wig For Corpse

THE body of a Swedish woman who died in Scotland was sent home with her waist-length hair hacked off.

Annie Borjesson's mum is convinced her hair was chopped by her killer.

But the Crown Office have revealed it was cut by funeral staff who did not want the family to see it matted in mud and debris from the sea.

Police say Annie, 30, drowned herself at Prestwick beach.

But mum Guje, 54, who lives near Gothenburg with husband Karoly, said: "The funeral staff said they cut her hair but I don't believe they would have taken it like that. It was roughly hacked off.

"It looked so bad I even considered getting a wig because I knew she would not want to be left like that.

"My daughter had never cut her hair in her life."

The Crown Office said: "It was cut while preparing the body for transfer."

Pathologist Dr Alan J Cromie said: "The hair gets matted or dirty in drowning cases and funeral staff try to present the body as best they can for the family."

Musician Annie came to Edinburgh two years ago and worked at the city's Scottish Whisky Heritage Centre.

Her body was found on December 4, 2005. Her family didn't believe it was suicide and offered a £10,000 reward for information.

The Crown Office added: "There has been a full probe into the death. There is no evidence of a crime."