Overview of government legal aid system
Legal aid is the assistance given to people otherwise unable to afford legal representation or access to the court. It is neither charity nor mercy, it is a right of the poor and underprivileged section of the society. Article 27 of the Constitution of the People's Republic of Bangladesh guarantees that "all citizens are equal before law and are entitled to equal protection of law." Despite such provisions, many people are deprived of their constitutional rights to access justice due to poverty.
The state legal aid programme is administered within the legal framework of the Legal Aid Services Act, 2000 (LASA). In terms of LASA, National Legal Aid Services Organization (NLASO) has been established by the government. NLASO is a statutory body working under Ministry of Law, Justice & Parliamentary Affairs to adopt policies and principles for making legal services available under the Act. NLASO is responsible for implementing government legal aid across the country. Management authority of NLASO is vested in a National Board of Management chaired by the minister, Ministry of Law, Justice & Parliamentary Affairs.
NLASO provides the following legal services to the poor and disadvantaged:
* Legal advice;
* Free vocalatnama;
* Advocate to help in a legal proceeding;
* Fees for lawyers;
* Fees for the mediator or arbitrator;
* Certified copies of order, judgment, etc. free of cost;
* Cost of DNA test;
* Cost of paper advertisement in CR case;
* Any other assistance along with expenses for a case.
Any poor person is entitled to get free legal aid service. Besides, any individual receiving old age allowance, distressed mother holding a VGD card, women and children victims of trafficking and acid throwing, insolvent widow, abandoned or distressed woman, disabled person, poor detainee can avail the free legal services.
The government has established a permanent legal aid office in every district to ensure access to justice for the poor and disadvantaged. Judicial officers from assistant/senior assistant judge tier are designated as district legal aid officer. The posts of office assistant and MLSS have also been created. Along with the litigation, district legal aid officers are providing legal advice and counseling services to the poor.
In order to make the government legal aid system accessible and responsive to the poor people, NLASO has finalised its 5-year Strategic Plan for 2012-2017, and approved its mission, vision, mandate and guiding principles through the Plan. This document contains organizational, programmatic, and collaborative and financial priorities for the next five years.
In order to provide primary information on legal aid, NLASO has a hotline service with three cell numbers (01761222222-4) at its head office. Under the service, anyone can get necessary information about legal aid service and its procedure through a phone call from any part of the country. In order to digitalise the government legal aid services, NLASO has launched a website (www.nlaso.gov.bd) containing necessary laws, data, statistics and procedure of getting legal aid.
The legal aid fees structure has long been identified as a significant barrier to accessing legal aid. It was one of the common criticisms from the lawyers' community that the lawyer fee is very poor in legal aid cases. Efficient and senior lawyers were reluctant to conduct legal aid cases due to poor payment. In order to remove this barrier, existing schedule of lawyer's fee has been increased to a great extent by amending Legal Aid Services Regulation, 2001.
The Ministry of Law, Justice & Parliamentary Affairs is exploring options to increase the use of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) mechanism to reduce backlogs and delay in the court system. NLASO has started to explore how legal aid clients can get more benefit from ADR, therefore LASA was amended in 2006 to include ADR as a legal aid service. Legal aid lawyers always encourage clients to settle their disputes through ADR.
LASA 2000 has provision for upazilla and union committees, but these had not been activated in the past. In March 2011, a regulation was made to formally establish these committee. After promulgation of the gazette, NLASO has formed upazila and union legal aid committees all over Bangladesh.
NLASO has printed posters, pamphlets and leaflets advertising the availability of government legal aid and has stared distribution of these materials at the district, upazila and union levels. The Organisation is also planning broader publicity campaigns, including media spots, to publicise legal aid.
The legal needs of poor women is an important focus of the government legal aid programme. The Legal Aid Policies 2001 make special reference to distressed mothers, women and children trafficking victims, women and children acid victims, insolvent widows and abandoned wives. Access to justice for poor women is also a priority of the government as started in Steps Towards Change, the revised Poverty Reduction Strategy.
Historically, NLASO has had only limited capacity for systematic legal aid policy reform. However, since 2009 NLASO has started work on a wide range of policy initiatives to re-examine the law and policy framework for legal aid and to introduce reforms. To strengthen the government legal aid system, LASA as well as legal aid policy and regulation have been amended.
Most of the people are not only poor but are also deprived of the minimum basic needs of life. Poverty, illiteracy, lack of knowledge keep the indigent people illiterate and want has kept them subjugated and ignorant of the basic human rights and amenities. Poor litigants are unable to reach the doorsteps of the justice system as it is expensive and time consuming, often leaving them to silently bear the agonies of injustice. The government is committed to ensure access to justice for the poor and indigent people. NLASO has been successful in bringing about a revolutionary change within 4 years in providing legal services, especially to the poor and vulnerable.
The writer is Director (District Judge), National Legal Aid Services Organization.