The front page article ‘Legal aid spending second lowest’ (October 5) provides an important opportunity to promote the progress made in this essential sphere of equal access to justice and equality before the law, while providing other information on other aspects of the provision of legal aid in Malta.

It is important to note that the Council of Europe’s European Commission for the Efficiency of Justice (CEPEJ) based its report on the information gathered up to the end of the year 2016.

Since then, Legal Aid Malta Agency has strived to further upgrade the provision of legal aid to clients.

The budget allocated to the agency in 2018 is €400,000 – a significant increase from the €100,000 allocated to it in 2016. This increase reflects a better delivery of service to eligible clients combined with an increase in the number of legal aid lawyers, administrative costs and more staff at the agency.

Here it is appropriate to point out that the current number of legal aid lawyers providing services has reached 22 in Malta and five in Gozo. Whereas in March 2017 there were 13 legal aid lawyers.

The honoraria payable to legal aid lawyers and legal procurators is now made through the agency. While remaining modest compared to private legal practice standards, this was more than doubled at the end of 2016.

The agency has been working on strengthening its internal processes while concurrently trying to be more easily accessible to the public requiring its services

Furthermore, the CEPEJ report relates mostly to criminal cases and refers to civil cases as non-criminal proceedings.

Under Maltese law at present, there is no means test carried out for those facing criminal proceedings before the Magistrates Court, trials by jury, those being held in police custody and victims of crime.

A means test is only conducted for those involved in civil proceedings.

Here, legal assistance is granted to beneficiaries whose disposable income does not exceed the amount established by law of €6,988.12, does not earn more than the national minimum wage for the current year and who the Advocate for Legal Aid establishes have a causa probabilis litigandi (i.e. a probable cause of action) after examining the claim made.

The agency has been working on strengthening its internal processes while concurrently trying to be more easily accessible to the public requiring its services. The agency has also set up a disciplinary board headed by a retired magistrate to investigate any claims made by clients of the agency against legal aid lawyers or legal procurators.

This apart from the already existing legal provisions in Maltese law.

We have also issued a first set of Standard Operating Procedures for legal aid lawyers and legal procurators detailing what is expected of them and establishing a reporting procedure whereby lawyers are expected to regularly update the agency on their caseload and the status of the cases.

Several proposals, intended to further improve the system, are currently being studied and discussed internally. All relevant stakeholders will certainly be fully consulted at the appropriate time.

Is the system perfect? Surely not. Is there room for improvement? Certainly.

There remains a lot to be done. However, in fact, plenty has already been done.

Marc Sant is the Head Advocate for Legal Aid and the CEO of Legal Aid Malta Agency.

This is a Times of Malta print opinion piece

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