Tbilisi, Georgia, June 26, 2007- A new legal aid law was adopted in Georgia yesterday after an overwhelming majority in parliament voted in favor of it.
The new law introduces a full-fledged model of public defenders as legal aid providers, and a quasi-independent executive agency (outside of the Ministry of Justice) to administer the system. A network of free legal advice centers is to be established throughout the country. The law calls for a gradual implementation of the system over the next two years. The Georgian government drastically increased the 2007 legal aid budget to more than 800,000 USD (from about 30,000
USD in 2005) to fund the ambitious reform plan.
“Georgia’s efforts to ensure quality free legal aid for all indigent criminal defendants in the country have been remarkable and they should be commended for having passed such a progressive law. The new law makes Georgia the first continental European country to deploy public defenders as part of mixed system of legal aid delivery,” said Zaza Namoradze, director of Budapest office of the Open Society Justice Initiative.
The new law radically changes the former system of publicly-funded legal services, which was deeply rooted in the Soviet legacy. The previous system suffered from a number of hortcomings, including: ill-defined criteria for entitlement to free legal advice and assistance; lack of clear procedures and standards for lawyers’ admission into the system; and absence of an effective mechanism to monitor the quality of the services provided.
As a result, free legal aid in Georgia was neither accessible, nor of high quality.
Georgia’s new law seeks to address these shortcomings by devising clear procedures to assess individual eligibility for free legal aid and for appointment of legal aid lawyers; and by introducing registration and reporting requirements for private attorneys who wish to become legal aid providers.
Georgia’s new law seeks to address these shortcomings by devising clear procedures to assess individual eligibility for free legal aid and for appointment of legal aid lawyers; and by introducing registration and reporting requirements for private attorneys who wish to become legal aid providers.
The new legal aid law is part of a broader reform of the criminal justice system initiated by President Mikheil Saakashvili in 2005.The Justice Initiative and Open Society Georgia Foundation were members of Georgia’s Legal Aid Reform Working Group, which developed the draft legal aid law in consultation with relevant stakeholders, experts, and civil society.
In addition to assistance with legislative reform, the Justice Initiative-in cooperation with the Open Society Georgia Foundation and the Georgian Young Lawyers Association-helped to establish two public defender offices in Tbilisi and Zestafoni in 2005 and 2006. These offices will be integrated into the new legal aid scheme.
