THE purpose of the National Legal Aid Services Organisation — set up by the turn of the century to provide legal assistance for the poor, disadvantaged people by engaging lawyers or giving advice in legal matters — has not been adequately effective for certain reasons that the government has for long left unattended. The poor remuneration for lawyers that the organisation appoints to deal with such cases keeps expert and qualified lawyers from engaging themselves in the services. The uncertainly about the duration that the cases might require for a resolution has only compounded the problem. If the lawyers that the organisation appoints attend bail hearing and the accused are remanded on bail, the remuneration is only Tk 900 while the lawyers are usually paid Tk 8,000–10,000, depending on the merit of the cases, outside the legal aid services plan. The organisation pays lawyers only Tk 200 for attending argument hearing in court for two to three days. A lawyer that ¶¶Òõ¾«Æ· report on April 28 quoted says that he has attended about 25 hearings over two years and he was paid only Tk 1,200. The poor amount of fees that the organisation pays the lawyers makes senior lawyers less willing to take up the cases.
The people who avail the services also complain that the lawyers who stand for them also treat them with less importance because of the poor remuneration. As the pay is not high, cases are mostly conducted by junior lawyers, resulting in, mostly, a poor handling of the cases. The situation points to the government’s lack of seriousness about affording the poor, having financial inability or other disabilities, the space for justice. Lawyers’ fee should, therefore, be increased. The organisation’s director says that the law ministry is working on the issue and proposal would be sent to the finance ministry seeking an increase in the remuneration of lawyers by about 30 per cent. While the government should increase the remuneration up to a working level so that the lawyers extending legal aid do not feel deprived and the justice-seekers receive able support, the lawyers should also remember, as the organisation’s director says, that this is a service meant free for justice-seekers, a kind of social service, and they should not always think too much about the remuneration. And, the services should be enhanced as the number of people who benefit from it is significant. Little more than a million people have received free legal services from the state-run agency, which has one office each in all the 64 districts, between 2009 and March 2024.
As long as the situation continues, the purpose of the National Legal Aid Services Organisation would continue to be defeated or, at least, continue to remain inadequate, harming both the justice delivery system and the litigants who need assistance but cannot employ lawyers for various reasons, mostly financial. The government is, therefore, well advised to look into the issue of remuneration for the lawyers that the agency employs and take steps, in earnest and quickly, to resolve them to mete out justice in a manner equal for all.