This information reflects the Society's web site at the date you downloaded or printed it and you should check at www.lawscot.org.uk to see if it is still current.

ORGANISATIONAL RESPONSES

The consultation was primarily primarily aimed at individuals and trying to capture the widest range of views and opinions on legal education and training as possible.   This approach was chosen for the reasons explained below.

However, the Society equally recognised that some organisations would still wish to log a response representing their policy position.  An option within each questionnaire allowed such feedback to be submitted. When this option was selected the respondent was asked to confirm that they have the authority to submit an organisational response, that the response was the official policy position of the organisation, and that the response ccould be made public. They were also asked to provide details of the internal consultation and decision making process that had lead them to achieve a consensus view.  Finally, the Society also recieved and considered responses outwith the online questionnaire format.  The organisations that responded include:

- Association of Graduate Careers Advisory Services (AGCAS)Scotland Law Advisers Group
- Faculty of Advocates
- Institute of Paralegals
- Johnston Consulting
- Lawcare
- OFT (Office of Fair Trading)
- Scottish Consumer Council
- Scottish Independent Advocacy Alliance
- Scottish Law Librarians Group
- Scottish Legal Aid Board
- Scottish Refugee Council
- Scottish Women's Aid
- Society of Legal Scholars
- BIG FIRMS (representing a third of trainees in Scotland)

Reasons for focussing on individual responses
Encouraging individual feedback also dealt with a range of difficulties relating to organisational responses, for example:

  • Receiving responses with dissenting opinions attached
  • Receiving more than one response, with conflicting views, from the same organisation
  • The status of responses – whether they represent the official position of the organisation
  • The weighing of responses – how you rate responses from different organisations, with different roles, and representing different numbers of members or clients
  • Double-counting – many institutions have been involved in the development of the consultation (for example, all law schools were invited to respond to a consultation on the content of the ‘Professional Subjects’), commenting on proposals they helped construct may be viewed by some as ‘double counting’

Any queries on organisational responses should be sent to the consultation e-mail address.