Expanding the subjects, scope and forms of legal aid to meet the requirements of institutional improvement in the new era

In order to provide more information and scientific arguments to the drafting agency and relevant agencies in the process of researching and developing the Draft Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Legal Aid, recently, in Hanoi, Democracy and Law Magazine coordinated with the Department of Dissemination of Education and Legal Aid to organize a scientific seminar "Improving institutions, policies and laws to improve the effectiveness of legal aid in the new era".

The seminar is a scientific forum for delegates who are researchers, policy makers, managers and those who provide legal aid (LA) and support and coordinate in LLA work to identify, evaluate and frankly share LLA issues, from policies, laws to practical implementation of LLA work towards innovation of LLA in the new era.

Delegates attending the seminar all agreed on the need to amend and supplement the Law on Legal Aid.

In his opening speech, Editor-in-Chief of Democracy and Law Magazine Truong The Cong emphasized that after the Law on Legal Aid was promulgated, legal aid work has made strong progress in terms of scale, quality and efficiency. However, in addition to the achieved results, the implementation of legal aid activities still faces many difficulties and challenges. Some legal regulations have not kept up with the requirements of innovation; resources for legal aid are limited; coordination between agencies and organizations is sometimes not synchronized; and the application of information technology and digital transformation in this field needs more attention.

Providing an overview, Ms. Vu Thi Huong, Deputy Director of the Department of Dissemination, Legal Education and Legal Aid, said that in the past 8 years, 22 legal documents on legal aid have been issued (including 1 law, 1 decree, 15 circulars and 5 joint circulars), creating an important and solid legal basis for the comprehensive development of legal aid work in a professional direction, providing timely quality legal services to people under legal aid, contributing to building a rule-of-law state of the people, by the people and for the people.

Regarding specific results, the system of organizing the implementation of legal aid has been improved. As of December 31, 2024, the country has 63 state legal aid centers and 97 branches under the center. After the merger of provinces, there are currently 53 state legal aid centers and 83 branches of the center.

The number of people providing legal aid has been strengthened not only in quantity but also in quality. Currently, there are more than 700 legal aid workers, about 700 lawyers and 22 collaborators signed contracts with the Center; 463 lawyers and consultants of organizations registered to participate in legal aid with the Departments of Justice. The standards of legal aid workers are equivalent to those of lawyers.

Legal aid practitioners, especially legal assistants, lawyers and legal aid collaborators, are constantly trained and improved in their professional skills. Inter-sectoral coordination in legal aid activities is increasingly focused on, creating favorable conditions for legal aid activities to be carried out in the best way.

The quantity and quality of legal aid cases are strictly controlled. From 2018 to 2024, 234,569 legal aid cases were carried out, of which 139,232 cases involved litigation, accounting for 59.4%; 93,266 cases involved legal advice; 2,071 cases involved non-litigation representation. Of the cases involved in litigation, 43,938 were considered successful (accounting for 31.6% of the total number of litigation cases), of which legal aid officers carried out 86% of these successful cases.

Analyzing the context of innovation in the new era, with the policy of promoting judicial reform, reforming the state apparatus, implementing the two-level local government model and national digital transformation, Deputy Director Vu Thi Huong stated that reviewing and evaluating to amend and supplement the Law on Legal Aid to suit practical innovation requirements is extremely necessary.

Speaking at the seminar, lawyer Dao Ngoc Chuyen, Vice President of the Vietnam Bar Federation, proposed to study and synchronously regulate legal provisions, especially the Law on Legal Aid and the Law on Lawyers; expand the subjects and scope of legal aid; enhance the responsibility of legal aid workers; take advantage of the team of lawyers at the grassroots level; increase the application of technology and digital transformation in legal aid work.

Source: https://cand.com.vn/Xa-hoi/mo-rong-doi-tuong-pham-vi-hinh-thuc-tro-giup-phap-ly-dap-ung-yeu-cau-hoan-thien-the-che-trong-ky-nguyen-moi-i785188/