Improving the effectiveness of legal aid in the new era

(Chinhphu.vn) - On the morning of October 17, Democracy and Law Magazine coordinated with the Department of Dissemination, Legal Education and Legal Aid (Ministry of Justice) to organize a scientific seminar "Improving institutions, policies and laws to improve the effectiveness of legal aid in the new era".

Scene of the Seminar. Photo: VGP/BP

In his opening speech at the seminar, Editor-in-Chief of Democracy and Law Magazine Truong The Con said that legal aid is a humane and progressive policy of our Party and State, demonstrating the good nature of the socialist regime, aiming to ensure human rights, civil rights, helping the poor, the disadvantaged, and people in special circumstances to access justice and equality before the law.

Since the Law on Legal Aid 2017 was promulgated and put into effect, along with the system of documents guiding its implementation, legal aid work has developed strongly in terms of scale, quality and efficiency.

Up to now, the network of TGPL organizations has been formed in all provinces and cities, annually handling tens of thousands of cases, contributing to protecting the legitimate rights and interests of the people, while enhancing people's trust in the law and justice.

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 activities are limited; coordination between agencies and organizations is not yet synchronized and the application of information technology and digital transformation in this field is still slow.

The workshop aims to identify and comprehensively evaluate issues on legal aid, focusing mainly on key issues such as: Policies and viewpoints of the Party and State on legal aid, innovation in legal aid work to meet the country's development requirements in the new era; requirements for perfecting the legal system to improve the quality and effectiveness of legal aid activities in the new context; bottlenecks, difficulties and problems in legal regulations and implementation of laws on legal aid, thereby proposing and recommending solutions for improvement...

Deputy Director of the Department of Legal Dissemination, Education and Legal Aid Vu Thi Huong said that as of December 31, 2024, the country had 63 State Legal Aid Centers and 97 branches under the Centers; after the merger, there were 53 State Legal Aid Centers and 83 branches; the number of people providing legal aid was about 1,440, of which over 710 were legal assistants, over 700 were lawyers and 22 were collaborators signed contracts with the Centers; over 460 were lawyers and consultants of organizations registered to participate.

The quantity and quality of legal aid cases are strictly controlled, gradually ensuring people's satisfaction with the quality of legal services provided by legal aid organizations; contributing to helping the poor, people with revolutionary contributions and "vulnerable" groups access justice and protect their legitimate rights and interests.

In the period 2018-2024, more than 234,569 legal aid cases were carried out, of which over 139,200 cases involved litigation, accounting for 59.4%; over 93,260 cases of legal advice; over 2,070 cases of non-litigation representation.

Deputy Director of the Department of Legal Dissemination, Education and Legal Aid Vu Thi Huong speaks at the seminar. Photo: VGP/TL

Deputy Director Vu Thi Huong emphasized that the 2017 Law on Legal Aid has been implemented synchronously and seriously nationwide and has achieved remarkable results. The system of legal documents is increasingly perfected, creating a solid legal basis for increasingly practical legal aid work, focusing on the implementation of cases, especially cases participating in litigation.

The organization implementing legal aid and the team of legal aid practitioners are being strengthened and their quality is being improved. Legal aid practitioners, especially legal assistants, lawyers and legal aid collaborators, are constantly being trained and their professional qualifications and skills are being improved.

In addition, the close connection between relevant agencies and organizations, including the prosecution agency, has created favorable conditions, ensuring that legal aid activities are carried out in the best way...

At the seminar, delegates proposed the need to develop a network of TGPL collaborators, increase the application of technology to connect and share expertise between localities and build a shared database system; continue to research, supplement and perfect policies on training and in-depth development, especially in professional skills, technology application, communication skills and international integration.

At the same time, it is necessary to have a mechanism for treatment, reward and protection of TGPL practitioners as well as a method of evaluating work performance appropriate to the specific characteristics of the profession; increase investment in facilities for TGPL activities...

Bich Phuong

Source: https://baochinhphu.vn/nang-cao-hieu-qua-tro-giup-phap-ly-trong-ky-nguyen-moi-102251017103915565.htm