The Malawi Law Society (MLS) and Legal Aid Bureau (Lab) are finally set to launch the Pro bono Legal Services Scheme.
MLS is a statutory body established under Section 63 of the Legal Education and Legal Practitioners Act, 2017, (LELPA) with objectives to, among other things, promote the highest standards among legal practitioners and to promote integrity, competence and transparency of professional services. Lab, on the other hand, is a Department of the government established under Section 3 of the Legal Aid Act, with the mandate to, among other things, provide legal aid in accordance with the Legal Aid Act.
Lab is by law mandated to grant legal aid in civil and criminal matters to persons whose means are insufficient to enable them to engage private legal practitioners and to other categories of persons where the interests of justice so require. Depending on circumstances of the person requiring legal aid, the person may be requested to make a contribution towards the legal aid or may be granted legal aid without making any contribution. The provision of legal aid is a realisation of the State’s responsibility to provide the services of a legal practitioner to the needy at its expense as provided for under Section 42(1)(c) and 42(2)(f)(v) of the Constitution.
Lab has power under Section 5(2)(i) of the Legal Aid Act “to develop pro bono programmes in conjunction with the Malawi Law Society”. Under section 42 of the legal Education and Legal Practitioners Acts, 2017 (LELPA) MLS, in liaison with the Director of Lab, allocates pro bono work to every legal practitioner annually.
A legal practitioner is also allowed to undertake pro bono work on his own and this is taken into account when MLS and the Director of Lab are allocating the pro bono work to a legal practitioner. Each legal practitioner is required to perform at least 24 hours of pro bono hours in a year.
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A legal practitioner who fails to perform pro bono work is by law required to pay MLS an amount determined by MLS with which MLS shall hire services of another legal practitioner to perform the work. Since January 1 2019, MLS and Lab have been jointly working to allocate pro bono work to legal practitioners.
During its annual general meeting held at Sunbird Nkopola Lodge in Mangochi on March 20 2022, members of MLS adopted a Resolution for the Development of a Working Framework for the Enhancement of Legal Practitioners’ Nationwide Involvement in Pro bono Legal Services for Lab-related work and Judiciary referrals.
Through this scheme, MLS will ultimately develop and distribute nationwide district panels of legal practitioners for reference by the Judiciary of pro bono work to legal practitioners for members of the public deserving of legal aid assistance.
So far, at least 50 legal practitioners have registered to be involved in the scheme. Under the scheme, a judicial officer who establishes that a litigant, or an accused person who appears in court, requires legal representation will be referring the person deserving legal representation to any of the legal practitioners on the list of panelists.
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Where, for some good reason, a legal practitioner on the list is not readily available, the court will be referring the person to MLS or Lab for MLS or Lab to allocate a legal practitioner to the person.
The scheme is aimed at helping the less privileged to enjoy their constitutional right to legal representation by a legal practitioner, which is guaranteed under Section 42(1)(c) and 42(2)(f)(v) of the Constitution.
Considering that courts are spread throughout the country, the scheme will help persons who could, otherwise, not have access to lawyers who are largely concentrated in urban areas to have access to legal practitioners.
Through the scheme, MLS and Lab are bringing legal practitioners to the less privileged. The scheme will also ensure that legal practitioners in private practice perform their public duty functions by contributing to access to justice through the scheme.
With the growing number of legal practitioners and the legal framework that makes provision of legal services by a legal practitioner in private practice mandatory, the scheme will help MLS and Lab to effectively implement sections 5(2)(i) of the Legal Aid Act and Section 42 of the LELPA.
MLS and Lab will launch the Nationwide Pro Bono Legal Services Scheme under the theme ‘Enhancing Access to Justice through Increased Provision of Pro-bono Legal Services in Malawi’. The launch will take place on Friday, October 13 2023, at Sekwere Primary School in Group Village Headman Kimu, Traditional Authority Mwambo, in Zomba District from 9am.
