The FacultyofAdvocates and Law Society of Scotland warned that lawyers would struggle, or even refuse, to represent an accused without instruction where the trial proceeded in their absence before all evidence had been heard.
The FacultyofAdvocates and the Law Society of Scotland, who welcomed the bill's broad principles, said they would be unable to properly represent an accused without their instructions during evidence-taking, and both warned that their members would most likely refuse to take on such a role.