The Legal Aid Commission has gathered stakeholders to deliberate on a draft framework for the introduction of the Paralegal system into the legal aid services to enhance justice delivery for the poor and vulnerable in Ghana.
The framework seeks to produce a regulatory regime and Legislative Instrument for parliamentary approval of paralegal practice in Legal Aid Services.
The Executive Director of Legal Aid Commission Lawyer Martin Tieku Ameyaw said the introduction of paralegals will help get more staff for the commission to aid and assist in free justice delivery for the poor.
He said currently the commission operates in less than 60 districts with little staff.
Mr Martin Tieku Ameyaw stressed further that not all individuals can afford to take lawyers to pursue their cases in court for them hence the need to seek the help of the paralegals to further advise on whether the case should be pursued at the court or the Legal Aid Commission offices.
He reiterated that even though the Attorney General over the past years has supported the Legal Aid Commission including 13 vehicles this year, the commission still needs more vehicles and motorbikes to be able to commute to remote areas.
“Our service is to serve the poor and the needy in society and our mandate is to bring justice delivery to their doorsteps. When we started formally the Legal Aid scheme we were only in then ten traditional regional capitals. So people who want our services -supposed to be the poor travel from far and near to our offices .so we find out that those who patronize our service was becoming expensive for them to travel to the rural areas to come to Koforidua .so 2005/2006 we approach UNDP that we want to go to the rural areas that are where the poor people are so we tried an experimental one we opened 18 Community mediation centres as pilot cases. So the first year we had 18, next year we had 26 offices so it became a success so government adopted it formally and then we changed the name from community mediation centre to District offices with the Legal Aid”
Ms Daphne Lariba Nabila who is the Chief of Party – USAID Justice Sector Support Activity who doubles as the Executive Director of Legal Resources Centre also highlighted the need to have more lawyers for the Legal Aid Commission to meet the needs of the marginalized in society.
She said out of over 4,000 lawyers in Ghana, only 40 lawyers are with the Legal Aid Commission.
She said the situation of inadequate Legal Aid lawyers or paralegals, many vulnerable are thrown into jail without legal representation hence hopeful the introduction of Paralegals will help address the challenges.
The Legal Aid Commission (LAC) was established 20 years ago in fulfilment of Article 294 of the 1992 Constitution, which grants all persons the right to legal aid for the enforcement of their rights or any provision under the 1992 Constitution.
Following the passage of the Legal Aid Commission Act, 2018 (Act 977), the LAC, formally the Legal Aid Board, became an independent commission to provide free legal services for the vulnerable, advise the citizenry on legal issues, as well as provide alternative dispute resolution (ADR) services for the public.
Source: Mybrytnewsroom.com/Obed Ansah
