Enhancing the position and capacity of the legal aid team

(Chinhphu.vn) - To improve the status and capacity of the legal aid team, it is necessary to focus on training solutions, fostering specialized skills, building reasonable remuneration policies, and having incentive mechanisms and financial support to increase income for those working in legal aid.

The team of Legal Aid Officers is growing, taking on complex and important work. Illustrative photo

Since the promulgation of the 2006 Law on Legal Aid and especially the 2017 Law, the State legal aid system has developed strongly in terms of organization, personnel and service quality. State legal aid centers and branches have gradually affirmed their role as "trusted legal friends" of the people, especially the poor, the disadvantaged, and ethnic minorities in remote and isolated areas.

The team of Legal Aid Officers is increasingly mature, undertaking the same work as Lawyers, from receiving, researching documents, participating in litigation, representing outside of litigation to providing legal advice to the people. Many complicated and serious cases have been protected and defended by Legal Aid Officers with high quality, courage and professional skills, making an important contribution to protecting human rights and enhancing people's trust in justice.

However, the current mechanisms and policies on legal aid have not really created strong motivation for those who provide legal aid; working conditions, remuneration, evaluation, rewards, and professional protection still have some shortcomings, not commensurate with the specific nature of the profession. Therefore, it is necessary to promptly study, amend, and supplement the law, to create a favorable environment and motivation for this team to develop their capacity and improve the quality of public legal services.

Sharing at the Workshop on Perfecting Institutions, Policies and Laws on Legal Aid in the New Era, Ms. Phan Thi Thu Trang, Deputy Director of the Hanoi State Legal Aid Center, said that the Law on Legal Aid has not yet specifically regulated the responsibilities of the People's Committees at the commune level in legal aid work. This is not consistent with the requirements of strengthening the role, responsibility and authority of grassroots authorities when implementing the current 2-level local government model.

On that basis, Ms. Trang said that it is necessary to supplement specific regulations on the responsibilities of the People's Committee at the commune level in providing documents related to legal aid; introducing and supporting people to access legal aid, organizing propaganda and coordinating with the Legal Aid Center to improve the effectiveness of legal aid activities at the local level.

A representative of the State Legal Aid Center No. 2 in Ho Chi Minh City said that some processes and administrative procedures in current legal aid activities are still cumbersome, unintentionally creating barriers that make it difficult for lawyers to participate or encounter problems. Therefore, it is necessary to digitize the entire process, streamline documents, and build an online legal aid portal that allows lawyers to register, monitor, and update case progress.

In order to improve policies and laws to improve the effectiveness of legal aid activities, Ms. Nguyen Thi Nga, Director of the State Legal Aid Center of Lai Chau province, recommended increasing investment in facilities for legal aid activities, ensuring a stable source of funding, in accordance with the requirements of legal aid activities; amending and supplementing legal regulations such as regulations on the number of officials (staff) working at each State Legal Aid Center of the provinces to have a basis to ensure human resources for legal aid work.

Along with that is improving the quality of the legal aid team: Organizing specialized training courses, regular professional development for legal aid staff; building reasonable remuneration policies with incentive mechanisms, financial support to increase income for those working in legal aid.

To meet new requirements in the context of digital transformation and international integration, opinions also suggest that it is necessary to continue researching, supplementing and perfecting policies on training and specialized training, especially on professional skills, technology application, communication skills and international integration for the team of legal aid workers.

Bich Phuong

Source: https://baochinhphu.vn/nang-cao-vi-the-nang-luc-cho-doi-ngu-tro-giup-vien-phap-ly-102251023103803583.htm