Interests of Justice test consultation

Respondent information

Name*

Email*

Are you responding as an individual or an organisation?*

Individual
Organisation

Please enter your organisation's name*

SLAB would like your permission to publish your consultation response. Please indicate your preference.*

Publish anonymous response
Publish response with name
Do not publish my response

NOTE - If you are responding on behalf of an organisation, anonymous publishing refers only to your name, not your organisation’s name. If this option is selected, the organisation name will still be published. By submitting a response you give us permission to analyse and include your response in our results.

Are you content for SLAB to contact you again in relation to this consultation exercise?*

Yes
No

We may wish to contact you again in the future, but we require your permission to do so.

Specific consultation questions

If you have any supporting documents, you can upload these at the end of this form to support your answers.

Q1: Which option do you favour SLAB adopting?

Option 0 – no change
Option A – interests of justice satisfied solely on the basis of prosecution in the sheriff court
Option B – as Option A, but current policy retained for areas with no separate JP court

Please provide the reason(s) for your answer.

Q2: In the IoJ test, we apply statutory and non-statutory factors. Do you have evidence in relation to how these might impact either positively or negatively on equality groups, or care experienced young people?

Q3: Do you have evidence that applicants in the JP court are more or less likely to come from vulnerable or disadvantaged equality groups or be care experienced, as compared to applicants in the sheriff court?

Q4: Do you have evidence about how island communities might be impacted by either of the change options?

Q5: What benefits or disadvantages can you see for solicitors and their clients of the change options?

Q6: Are there wider benefits or disadvantages for the justice system which you could see coming from either of the change options?

Q7: To what extent, if at all, do you think that either of the change options could result in more legal aid applications than would have been submitted otherwise?

You can upload supporting documents here.

Drop files here or

Consultation on the application of the Interests of Justice (IoJ) test in sheriff court proceedings

IoJ consultation questionnaire

Respondent information

Specific consultation questions