A SCOTS RAF officer and solicitor is launching a scheme to help members of the Armed Forces receive discounts of a third off their legal fees.
Allan Steele is behind Armed Forces Legal Action (AFLA), which aims to help serving personnel and those who have left the army within two years if they need legal assistance.
It aims to extend lifetime legal cover to personnel who have sustained serious combat injuries, recipients of the Victoria Cross, the George Cross and bereaved next of kin recipients of the Elizabeth Cross. Wing Commander Steele, who is stationed in the Netherlands, said: "Armed Forces personnel have told me many times over the years when they use a solicitor they pay far too much money but they don't get any discount. With the sacrifices they make I just think that there's something to be done by the legal profession to help out a little bit.
"I have the legal profession in mind as well. I'm a lawyer and I often think the legal profession gets a bad reputation, often unfairly, simply because it's quite an expensive profession."
He said the scheme would provide a way for solicitors to show they are working in tandem with the military covenant being developed by the UK Government.
The plan is being launched next year on Armed Forces Day. Membership will be free for law firms to sign up to, who will enter into an agreement to offer the discount.
They will then have permission to use the AFLA logo to advertise their membership and give one third of their fees off for those who are eligible.
The scheme has already gained positive, cross-party support, including the Law Society of Scotland, and Mr Steele maintains that it will remain politically neutral.
He also said it does not aim to raise any money. He added: "This is absolutely not a charity. My own view is that there are far too many charities out there. This is about keeping money in pockets."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article