Hundreds of lawyers plan to take industrial action today in protest at government plans to reform legal aid.

Glasgow's custody court, Scotland's busiest court, is expected to struggle to cope with up to 200 people appearing from custody following the bank holiday weekend.

The court regularly runs until 10pm following a busy weekend. Ordinarily, the duty solicitors would deal with around 20 people and the remainder would be processed by their own lawyers. But today, duty solicitors will have to cope with all cases and the court may have to send away those it can not see in time.

Just four duty solicitors will have to process the high numbers which may mean some offenders will have to be released from custody.

In an attempt to avert the action, representatives from the Glasgow Bar Association (GBA), Scotland's largest group of court lawyers, met Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill yesterday to try to reach a compromise.

However, last night lawyers said they had failed to resolve the situation.

Sara Matheson, GBA president, told The Herald last night: "The industrial action will go ahead as planned. We are also considering stepping it up into other areas.

"Kenny MacAskill's take on it is that there has been a consultation process and that he has done everything he can.

It is on the latter part that we disagree. We also anticipate that action will be taken in Aberdeen and Inverness."

The Glasgow Bar Association, which represents one-third of the 1400 criminal lawyers in Scotland, voted in favour of industrial action last month.

Although the lawyers' grievances encompass a range of issues, the main point of contention is proposed cuts in payments they receive for legal aid.

The reforms were announced by Mr MacAskill, as a way of tackling wastage in the system, which the government claims amounts to £4m. The proposals, which the government hopes will come into force next month, include the introduction of a single-fee level in sheriff and stipendiary magistrates courts for cases disposed of before trial, replacing different levels of payment for cases with guilty and not-guilty pleas.

A 10% increase in criminal advice and assistance rates is also proposed. This is less than the 21% originally put forward, but allows resources to be freed up to fund other increases.

Members of the GBA have also warned the changes mean those on income support will not automatically get legal aid.

"We don't understand this," said one Glasgow lawyer. "This is an access-to-justice issue. If you had too much money then surely you wouldn't be on income support in the first place."

The Law Society of Scotland has asked lawyers not to take industrial action.

Solicitor Oliver Adair, who was involved in the negotiations on behalf of the Law Society, has said that, while the new proposals were an improvement, there was still an overall cut in the Legal Aid budget.

A Scottish Government spokesman said: "The Justice Secretary met a representative from the GBA and confirmed he remains willing to engage constructively with the profession, but we have now concluded the negotiations on the reforms.

"We have agreed with the Law Society that the reforms should be monitored closely with an early review to consider whether further adjustments may be necessary. The profession will be fully involved in the monitoring and review process.

"Over the past six months we've had constructive discussions with a wide range of the legal profession's representatives to develop the summary legal aid reforms. While we understand the fears of some, reforms are necessary and change is inevitable."

He added: "We made significant changes to our original proposals in direct response to concerns raised by the legal profession, and reinvested substantial potential savings in order to do so.

"These reforms are driven by the need to improve summary justice, not cut costs. The system has to serve all our citizens not simply those who work in it. It has to serve those who need protected by it not just those who earn from it."