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More lawyers needed to help needy accused

SINGAPORE — Eight months after the Government announced it would directly fund legal aid to benefit 6,000 accused persons annually — or half of the total number of cases here in a year — the scale of the work expected of lawyers volunteering their time became clearer yesterday.

Lawyers wondered whether the Law Society’s plans to spur more lawyers to give their time would be effective. Today File Photo

Lawyers wondered whether the Law Society’s plans to spur more lawyers to give their time would be effective. Today File Photo

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SINGAPORE — Eight months after the Government announced it would directly fund legal aid to benefit 6,000 accused persons annually — or half of the total number of cases here in a year — the scale of the work expected of lawyers volunteering their time became clearer yesterday.

The expansion, which is targeted to be achieved within five years of its implementation, translates to a 15-fold jump in the current workload under the Criminal Legal Aid Scheme (CLAS). But the Law Society of Singapore thinks a pool of volunteer lawyers of twice the current size — 530 — will be able to handle it. This means each lawyer offering pro bono services under CLAS has to take on at least 11 cases a year.

In contrast, the 265 volunteer lawyers under CLAS handle about 400 cases a year, or fewer than two cases each annually.

Speaking at a press conference yesterday, LawSoc president Lok Vi Ming set a three-year target to double its number of volunteer lawyers under CLAS.

To get more volunteer lawyers on board the scheme, LawSoc said honorariums — a nominal allowance, in other words — and training schemes would be provided.

Apart from full representation, “unbundled services” — such as doling out legal advice or rendering assistance outside court appearances, such as crafting a mitigation plea — would be provided, Mr Lok added.

Last December, when the Government announced that it would enhance CLAS with more funding, the scheme’s chairman Abraham Vergis pointed out that there were insufficient volunteer lawyers to “cope with the substantial number of needy and deserving cases ... that could have benefited from some form of legal representation”.

He added that it would be a challenge to get more lawyers to commit sufficient time to criminal legal aid work.

Yesterday, however, Mr Lok, who is a senior counsel, painted a different picture. He said: “We have not turned away anyone who needs legal assistance because we don’t have enough volunteers — we don’t have that situation.”

From Sept 1 last year to July 31, LawSoc received 1,713 aid applications, of which 451 cases were granted help.

Commenting on LawSoc’s plans, lawyers welcomed the move to extend legal aid. Mr Josephus Tan, who has received awards for the amount of time he commits to pro bono work, said the “utopia” would be a situation where every person charged in court is represented, regardless of his background or financial circumstances.

Asked to comment on the potential significant increase in the workload for volunteer lawyers under CLAS, Ms Rita Niranjan pointed out that whether lawyers could take up to 11 CLAS cases a year “depends on the nature of the cases”.

Those that go to trial tend to take more time, she said. “It doesn’t really matter (whether they are CLAS cases), these people really need help.”

However, lawyers wondered whether LawSoc’s plans to spur more lawyers to give their time would be effective. The issue of getting more lawyers to provide pro bono services has been hotly debated in recent years, with a recommendation by a high-powered committee to mandate a minimum number of voluntary hours widely opposed by the fraternity.

Mr Ramesh Tiwary felt the disbursement of honorariums would not encourage more lawyers to join the scheme. “The people who have been devoting their time to CLAS are doing it out of (sheer) passion and I don’t think the money will encourage anybody who has not previously taken up a CLAS case to take up (one),” he said.

Mr Choo Zheng Xi added that while honorariums would help defray costs, the majority of lawyers who are doing pro bono work “do it for the satisfaction of increasing access to justice”.

Asked whether making pro bono services a requirement would boost the number of volunteer lawyers available, lawyers noted that it would not serve the spirit of the law since the work rendered would not come from a dedication to help an accused person.

Said Mr Choo: “Pro bono should come from the heart ... you don’t want to be represented by a lawyer who doesn’t want to do your case.”

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