The Salduz Case lit a long, slow fuse on Scottish criminal procedure following detention and arrest, which blew up in spectacular and embarrassing fashion during June. ShadowJustice Minister Richard Baker is appalled at the mess.

Scotland’s Justice system faces its biggest challenge in a generation over the Salduz judgment and the SNP government have completely failed to engage with the legal profession.

When the Salduz judgement was handed down in October 2008 and the European Court of Human Rights said that suspects had a right to legal representation alarm bells should have rung then.

It appears from the confusion and panic at the heart of the Scottish government that no proper preparations were made, no contingency funding was put in place and those who actually make our justice system function – our legal practitioners - were completely ignored.

The fact is that even if the decision on the ruling from the Supreme Court, expected in October this year does not require retrials, acquittals and compensation payments, the increase in the workload of criminal defence lawyers will be significant.

So far the basic questions of how this will work, how payments will be made and even if there is the capacity in the system have not been addressed.

The number of criminal defence agents that have capacity for training new solicitors is not exactly huge and in these financially difficult times for firms the question remains: where will these lawyers come from?

The Scottish government should have been speaking to the profession about any change in procedure and have had the fine details about payment and capacity issues worked out well before the Lord Advocate quietly announced the alteration in procedure.

The implications of the change in procedure in police stations has huge implications for the Scottish justice system - not least in the provision of legal aid. These changes will cost tens of millions of pounds and have simply not been planned or budgeted for.

Scotland faces the spectre of cuts in budgets. What will Alex Salmond have to cut to pay for it? How many police officers will he have to cut? Or will other aspects of the legal aid budget be slashed?

Could we see support for civil work curtailed to make up the shortfall? Or perhaps tighter fee structures for more complex cases?

The fact that the First Minister told me on 17 June that he had no idea what this change in our legal system will cost the legal aid budget is frightening. He needs to find out exactly how much and find out quickly.

If the judgement of the Supreme Court turns out to be retrospective then the implications are even more serious. Acquittals, retrials and possible compensation will drag Scotland’s courts into chaos, but again there appears to have been no contingency planning on how Scotland’s courts would cope.

Progress of changes in the High Court and Summary Court to speed up justice for victims and witnesses would be lost as significant numbers of individuals faced potential retrials and I am yet to speak to anyone involved in the Scottish legal system who thinks that the current system could cope.

The Salduz judgement throws opens countless cans of worms about the nature of the future of the Scottish justice system.

The tradition that suspects are only detained for six hours rather than the 24 hours we see in England and Wales is one of the facets of Scottish Justice that sets it apart. Along with the laws surrounding corroboration that has traditionally meant that Scottish convictions have been seen as some of the safest around the world are now under scrutiny.

If a lawyer must be present at interview then police are likely to argue that detention times must increase to allow time for legal representation to arrive. Also, if a legal representative is present at interview then it could be argued that any confession or admission at that interview would be a sufficient evidence on its own rather than need corroboration.

These questions are at the heart of our justice system and any changes should not be made in haste. However, if the Justice Secretary had been on the ball, questions like this could have been carefully considered and discussed well before now.

We are in danger of sleepwalking into sweeping changes in the Scottish legal system because of a lack of preparation. That is inexcusable and threatens Scotland’s unique legal framework.