Legal Aid Council offers free assistance to vulnerable Jamaicans

Many Jamaicans are unaware that legal assistance is available free of cost for eligible persons facing criminal charges, as well as free legal advice for members of the public.

The Legal Aid Council (LAC) plays an important role in ensuring that persons of low or moderate means have access to legal representation and guidance when they need it most.

Speaking on the JIS Television ‘Get the Facts’ programme recently, Executive Director of the Legal Aid Council, Dian Watson, said the LAC was established by the Government to ensure that persons who are detained, arrested or charged with a criminal offence can have an attorney if they cannot afford to retain one.

“So, the main role is for the council to establish a legal aid scheme, to administer the scheme, and to ensure that Jamaicans, that their constitutional right… is guaranteed. So, the council is there for persons who need an attorney but cannot afford one,” Watson said.

The LAC offers three main services, including provision of a duty counsel, who goes to the police station to assist someone who has been arrested or detained.

“That service is completely free. There's no application process; you just need to give us a call. So, once you have a relative who's arrested, you can give us a call. In addition to that, the arrested person, the detainee, can ask the police officer to call a duty counsel. So that's the attorney who's going to come to the station to assist you,” Watson said.

“That's very important because we want to protect persons' rights. So not only do you have a right to a lawyer, but we need to also ensure that you do not self-incriminate.”

The executive director stressed that the services of a duty counsel are completely free. However, for legal representation in court, Watson explained that there is an application process for that, “because we want to make sure you're eligible for legal representation”.

“So, we will complete an application, do a means test to see if you are eligible for the service and if you can make a contribution. Persons who can make a contribution, oftentimes it’s very small, $500 or $1,000. They pay that but there is absolutely no bill that is going to come after. For those who cannot, they're still assigned an attorney,” she stated.

“That small contribution that they make is put in a contribution fund and that very fund is used to pay for any expenses that might advance their defence. What I mean is, suppose we had somebody with a hearing problem, and they can't hear what's happening in court, we've had in the past to purchase hearing aids so the person can hear what's happening in court and participate in the proceedings.”

She further stated that, “we have been able to pay for expert witnesses, including psychiatric evaluations, DNA experts, and so on. So that fund is used to do many wonderful things to advance the defence. Not because you can't retain an attorney doesn't mean that you're not going to get excellent service.”

The LAC also offers its services through a mobile justice service unit, where lawyers are on a bus donated by the Canadian government and they provide service to individuals in underserved areas. They also visit the various Justice centres across the island providing legal advice to persons in need.

Watson said that during the outreach activities, the LAC provides advice on issues such as divorce, land matters, probate matters, employment matters, child support, maintenance and other family matters.

CERTAIN LEGAL MATTERS LAC CANNOT COVER

The executive director informed, however, that there are certain legal matters that the LAC cannot cover.

“These are like very minor offences… for which you cannot go to prison, or they don't attract any criminal record. Very minor offences, some traffic offences, small fines. If you have a matter like this before the justice of the peace, where the fine is really very small, there's no period of imprisonment, and no record and most of the offences under the Dangerous Drugs Act and money laundering type offences,” she stated.

“We wouldn't normally grant legal aid for those kinds of matters. There are a few matters under the Road Traffic Act – dangerous driving, we provide legal aid for that because then you can lose your licence up to a year and you can be imprisoned.”

There are currently 900 attorneys on the LAC panel, and these attorneys are drawn from private practice across Jamaica.

“For the most part they want to give back, which is why they sign up so they can assist. We rarely have cases where we have reports of attorneys asking the client for money. But in the event that there's someone out there who that has happened to, we recommend that they report it to us so that we can examine it, investigate and see whether or not an attorney should remain on our panel,” Watson said.

She noted that the LAC has been breaking down the barriers in terms of its reach with persons who are vulnerable.

“We have been doing a lot of work with persons with disabilities. We have been building capacity by training the lawyers on our panel to speak sign language. We've been training them to assist persons who are mentally challenged. We have training coming up in child friendly justice for attorneys because we want to ensure that the service that we give to the Jamaican public is the best,” she said.

“We want to ensure that when you come to the Legal Aid Council and persons who have been there have said that when they come, they can feel a passion. They can feel that we're really there for them. We want people to know that they have a right to a lawyer.”

Individuals seeking assistance from the Legal Aid Council may contact the organisation at 888-JUSTICE (888-587-8423).

The Legal Aid Council may also be contacted via WhatsApp at (876) 505-9375 or by email at aid.legal@moj.gov.jm.

- JIS

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