Free legal aid only for criminal cases

Malay Mail
by Andrew Sagayam

THE free legal aid will focus on representing Malaysians in criminal cases and not other areas of the legal matters.

Malaysian Bar Council president Lim Chee Wee said for the time being, providing free legal aid for cases such as divorce, property purchase or employment, were not part of their plans because they wanted to concentrate on criminal cases.

"This has always been our target even before the National Legal Aid Foundation (NLAF) was established.

"We might consider handling other types of cases later on but not any time soon." he said, commenting on whether the NLAF would extend its free services to other areas following the RM20 million allocated for the foundation under the 2013 Budget.

Lim said the Legal Aid Department, under the Prime Minister's Department, is currently providing free legal aid for personal cases.

"Because the department is already providing free legal aid for such cases, NLAF will only concentrate on criminal cases." he said.

When asked if there were enough lawyers to handle criminal cases nationwide, Lim said it was sufficient and he expect the number of those who signed up for the pro bono work could and should increase over time.

"The three Bars of the Peninsula, Sabah and Sarawak now have a trained pool of 777 lawyers volunteering in the scheme, and to date, 8,500 Malaysians received legal representation.

"Between April and July this year, NLAF lawyers assisted 13,046 persons in remand hearings and 254 criminal files were opened."

Lim said NLAF scheme nationwide had extended to 68 out of 163 police district headquarters and 70 out of 99 remand courts.

"However, one incentive will be to increase the present nominal sum they are paid, to at least match that of an equivalent jurisdiction, such as Taiwan.

"It is notable the fees paid to lawyers in the United Kingdom and Australia under their legal aid schemes are many times higher than those paid here."

He said the Bar looked forward to the government's continuing support to ensure the success and sustainability of the programme for those ensnared in the criminal justice system.

He said those who are hauled to court for criminal cases would be given free legal aid if they earn an income of less than RM25,000 per annum while those earning between RM25,000 and RM36,000 a year will need to pay a token RM300 for the service.

Lawyers under NLAF, he said, can earn up to RM250 a day handling remand cases and probably make RM2,000 to RM3,000 a month.

The NLAF, which was launched by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak on Feb 25 last year, suffered a setback when the Attorney-General’s Chambers and the legal profession were locked in a disagreement over the number of volunteer lawyers needed for it to be successful.

Attorney-General Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail had lamented that the scheme into which the government had allocated RM5 million initially had only 300 lawyers when it needed at least 1,000 to 1,500 lawyers.

To this, NLAF alternate director Ragunath Kesavan and Lim claimed 500 lawyers were trained and the number was enough to get the service going.

Legal observers questioned why it was difficult to get lawyers into the service when there were 15,400 lawyers in the country.

The NLAF finally commenced operations on April 2.