The need for legal aid is increasing.

The provincial interdisciplinary coordination council on legal aid (Laid) in litigation activities has just inspected the coordination work on Laid in litigation activities in 2023 at the Provincial Police and district-level litigation agencies including: Vinh Cuu, Nhon Trach, Cam My, Tan Phu.

The inspection team of the Provincial Inter-sectoral Coordination Council on Legal Aid in Litigation Activities worked at Nhon Trach District Police. Photo: A.NHON

The interdisciplinary delegation acknowledged the efforts of the prosecution agencies in coordinating the work of legal aid.

* More and more people are receiving free legal aid

One of the units highly appreciated by the delegation is Tan Phu District Police. This is a unit in a remote area but has paid attention and done a very good job of coordinating with the police.

At the working session with the Interdisciplinary Delegation on Legal Aid in the Procedural Activities of the Province working at Tan Phu District Police in July 2023, Lieutenant Colonel Nguyen Xuan Truong, Deputy Head of the Investigation Police Agency of Tan Phu District Police, said that in the past time, the unit has actively implemented the work of legal aid, both ensuring legal requirements in investigation activities and ensuring the rights of subjects receiving legal aid. The unit also promoted propaganda, dissemination and legaleducation to promptly protect the rights and legitimate interests of people receiving legal aid, especially the poor, people with revolutionary contributions, ethnic minorities, etc.

Subjects eligible for free legal aid include: people with revolutionary contributions, people from poor households, children, ethnic minorities residing in areas with especially difficult socio -economic conditions, accused persons from 16 to under 18 years old, accused persons from near-poor households, the elderly, people with disabilities, and people infected with Agent Orange (with financial difficulties).

In addition, the Tan Phu District Police Detention Center has strictly implemented the posting of information boards on legal aid and placed legal aid information boxes at the agency's headquarters. All cases of arrest, detention, defendants and victims are explained about free legal aid activities, guided to access information on legal aid and register for legal aid when they are eligible for legal aid. In the first 5 months of 2023 alone, the unit requested legal aid for 17 cases under 18 years old.

Deputy Director of the Provincial State Legal Aid Center Le Minh Tuan said that the coordination of legal aid implementation in litigation activities has been proactively and actively implemented synchronously by all levels and sectors. Awareness of the position and role of legal aid work in general and legal aid work in litigation activities in particular has been significantly raised.

In addition, the Department of Justice, the Standing Agency of the Legal Aid Coordination Council, has actively directed the Provincial State Legal Aid Center to assign legal aid practitioners with sufficient capacity and qualifications to participate in the litigation process to promptly protect the rights and legitimate interests of subjects receiving free legal aid. The agencies and persons conducting the litigation have explained the rights and obligations under procedural law, the right to legal aid to those eligible for legal aid and guided them or their relatives to the Provincial State Legal Aid Center, its branches to request legal aid... Thanks to that, the number of legal aid cases implemented in the form of participating in litigation is increasing.

“Up to now, legal aid activities for disadvantaged people have not only increased in number of cases but also in quality. The participation of legal aid officers in litigation has been constantly improved and better meets the requirements of people receiving legal aid,” Mr. Le Minh Tuan shared.

* Aiming at the rights of the disadvantaged

In addition to the achieved results, coordination work on legal aid still has shortcomings and limitations. For example, people's awareness of legal aid is not high, many people still do not trust free legal aid activities. The rotation of work for the investigation team makes legal aid activities encounter many difficulties. Some officers and civil servants performing litigation work do not fully understand the provisions of the 2017 Law on Legal Aid, so there are still limitations in coordinating with the Provincial State Legal Aid Center and its branches...

Legal assistants of the Provincial State Legal Aid Center advise people on their right to free legal aid.

In the face of the above situation, Deputy Director of the Department of Justice Phan Quang Tuan (Vice Chairman of the Legal Aid Coordination Council) requested that the agencies that are members of the council perform well a number of tasks in the coming time. In particular, the agencies conducting the proceedings should further strengthen the implementation of regulations on coordination work; increase specialized training courses in the police, People's Courts, and District-level People's Procuracies; seriously carry out the propaganda and explanation of the right to legal aid for denounced persons, persons recommended for prosecution, persons detained in emergency cases, arrested persons, persons in temporary detention, defendants, accused persons, victims, litigants in criminal cases and litigants in civil cases, administrative cases; effectively introduce subjects eligible for legal aid to the Provincial State Legal Aid Center and its branches.

In addition, the court agency needs to closely coordinate with the Department of Justice to implement legal aid at the People's Courts in the province; create favorable conditions for assistants assigned to work at the People's Courts of districts...

The number of new TGPL cases accepted in the first 6 months of 2023 was 247 (an increase of 67 cases compared to the same period in 2022). The number of TGPL cases completed in the first 6 months of 2023 was 178 (an increase of 41 cases compared to the same period in 2022).

An Nhon

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