The End Of Solicitor-Client Confidentiality In Scotland

It seems that my former professional brethren are all at risk of being co-opted as special constables in the war against the gangs.

I don't care what fine words are uttered by the President and Council of The Law Society of Scotland on this matter; although they might not intend to turn solicitors into snitches, that will be the consequence of their actions. The purpose of solicitor-client confidentiality is to ensure that clients are able to receive all relevant advice, and they can only receive all relevant advice when they are able to provide their solicitors with all relevant facts. If solicitors feel compelled to act like Eaglesham's or Eyemouth's answer to Eliot Ness, then clients will not discuss matters with their solicitors as fully as they should.

One possible, and very possibly unintended, consequence of this state of affairs coming about will be non-gang members being prosecuted for gang-related crimes. If a gang-member knows that he can't discuss gang activity with his solicitor then there is no reason for him to plead guilty to anything, if only because he can't obtain the appropriate professional advice. This would in turn result in increases not only in the number of unsuccessful prosecutions but also of less convincing prosecutions being brought before the courts; should the police ever feel under pressure to keep up their war on the gangs, the temptation to cast their net wider and throw a whale in order to catch a sprat might become very strong.

Another very possible, and most hopefully unintended, consequence would be jealous and avaricious solicitors maliciously 'shopping' their more successful peers in the hope of tarring them with the suspicion of being gang lawyers. One would hope that if such behaviours were ever detected, the beaks would have the culprits in their jaws in a flash.

This is just another example of how the civil liberties of Scots are being degraded during an administration which boasts of its wish to set Scotland free. Although freedom might be slavery and ignorance strength, The Tartanissimo and the agencies under his control also seem to believe that tyranny is liberty. As James Erskine of Grange remarked of pre-Union Scotland in 1732, 'Liberty was a stranger here'. It seems that in many ways she's still a stranger.