What is the role of a recognised legal representative?
The Inquiry is not a trial. It is a process designed to assist the chairman to elicit the information required to enable him to report on the terms of reference. The procedure is inquisitorial rather than the adversarial procedure normal in the courts. In particular it will be for the chairman, not participants’ legal representatives, to decide what questions are permitted. Most of the questioning of witnesses at oral hearings will normally be done by counsel to the Inquiry. However Rule 9 of the Inquiries (Scotland) Rules 2007 enables the chairman to permit recognised legal representatives to question witnesses in some circumstances. Rule 10 enables recognised legal representatives to make opening and closing statements on behalf of those they represent, subject to the chairman’s discretion. The legal representatives of core participants and others have an important role in assisting in the obtaining of written statements and by suggesting lines of questioning to be taken by counsel t
