Calls are being made to increase the budget for the Legal Aid Commission as each lawyer has a case load of about 121 cases as of 2024, which is exacerbated by a staff shortage and recommendations are for the Minister of Finance to increase the Commission's budget to enable the recruitment of additional lawyers.
This has been highlighted by Assistant Minister for Foreign Affairs and the Chair of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defence Lenora Qereqeretabua during the debate on the Consolidated Review Report of the Legal Aid Commission from 2018 to 2023 Annual Reports.
Qereqeretabua says the Commission is experiencing a high staff turnover due to salary disparity between legal staff and those working at other government bodies like the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions and FICAC.
She says other issues include the lack of opportunities for Commission lawyers to attend important legal training, such as on cyber crime and money laundering, and a language barrier that also hinders service to non-English-speaking clients.
The Assistant Minister says the Committee recommends that the Commission be provided resources to engage interpreters and ensure that its lawyers are given equal opportunity for professional development.
She says they also suggest the creation of a dedicated 24-7 free line for public access, as well as making the Commission's offices more disability-friendly in terms of accessibility.
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance, Professor Biman Prasad says there is a need to allocate more funds to enable the recruitment of additional lawyers.
He says from 2017 to last year, the government has allocated $70 million and in the 2024-2025 budget, the Commission was allocated $11 million.
Professor Prasad says as of March, $6.3 million has already been spent as part of their budget.
He says the Commission’s Legal and Principal Legal Offices are paid less than 2 percent when compared to the Office of the Attorney General, Office of the DPP and the Principal Legal Officers.
Minister for Lands and former Director of the Commission Filimoni Vosarogo says there are lawyers in the Commission who are handling over a hundred files in a given calendar year.
He says this is worrying as a lawyer will not have quality time on each of those files.
Vosarogo also believes that it is time parity between State offices, lawyers in the DPP's Office, lawyers in the AG's Office, lawyers in the office of the FICAC and lawyers in the Legal Aid Commission who are all performing State functions.
Attorney General Graham Leung says it is their intention that those gaps and concerns which are valid will be addressed in the near future.
Minister for Justice Siromi Turaga says there is probably a misunderstanding between members of the public who come and ask him for updates for the case as they have not been fairly briefed.
He says he receives five to ten requests for updates which he passes to the Director for Legal Aid so that they can be fully briefed.
Turaga is also requesting if the Legal Aid can be discretionary in terms of cases where people who probably earn higher, but because of their commitment, they need a lawyer and they cannot afford a private lawyer.
While speaking in support of the motion, Opposition MP Faiyaz Koya says the continuous funding of Legal Aid and the increase of legal aid is actually important as it is really the largest law firm in the country and employs about 100-odd lawyers.
Opposition MP Virendra Lal says he is pleased to note that the Commission has received additional funding which has helped manage the heavy workload and improve service delivery but they must ensure that this funding is sustained and further increased to meet the growing demand for legal aid services.
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