LAST week, The Herald shone a spotlight on access to justice in Scotland. Scots lawyers are – ironically – often terrible advocates for their own interests.

Proposals to invest more money in the NHS are a safe bet. But ­persuading politicians to invest more ­money in lawyers has been a harder sell – not least because many of us are convinced they’re already coining it in.

Some of this is down to the distortion ­effect of the kind of legal aid payments ­being paid over to the apex of the ­profession, some because lawyers sometimes struggle to articulate the social good they ­contribute towards. But they shouldn’t.

Unpick the figures. Every year, the ­Scottish Legal Aid Board publishes a ­rundown of its top earners. In a country where the median income of a full-time worker is just over £35,500 a year before tax, the data shows Scotland’s top criminal lawyers are earning many multiples of that.

Top of the tree last year was Tony ­Lenehan KC, who took in £450,000 for his criminal defence work. Five more ­experienced ­lawyers earned £300,000 or more, with the rest of the top 20 taking home between just under £200,000 and £273,000.

Considering these salaries, you might think the supposed crisis in legal aid ­payments looks like an extraordinary spot of special pleading by greedy ­lawyers, whose most prosperous members are ­doing very nicely thank you. They are. But look again.

Senior silks' salaries

While you’d expect a newbie criminal defence lawyer defending minor cases in the Sheriff Court to earn less than ­experienced people shouldering responsibility for a complex High Court trial, the disparity between the healthy fees ­senior silks command and the going rate for ­solicitors and advocates working on ­ordinary and much more abundant crime is stark, with many lawyers working at less than the median salary to keep their firms afloat as going concerns.

Because of the scant fees they are paid, practitioners are incentivised to pile the cases high to secure a steady income stream. One reason this should concern us is........

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