Legal Aid Council to Conduct Public Education Campaign

Executive Director of the Legal Aid Council, Glenn Cruickshank has disclosed that a public education campaign targeting police officers and citizens about the importance of Duty Counsel would come on stream later this year.
The Legal Aid Act makes provisions for persons who are detained at lockups, police stations or correctional institutions, to be afforded the services of an attorney who is known as a Duty Counsel, before he or she is questioned by the police or while an identification parade is being conducted.
“This is a free programme that is provided for by the Government, where you get the services of an attorney without paying and without even going through an interview. It is your right under the law and you should use it to protect yourself and your family,” the Executive Director explained in an interview with JIS News.
“In many instances, although the duty counsel programme is working, the police have not been using it as often as they ought to, so this year we plan to go on an extensive public education campaign to make citizens aware of the duty counsel programme and also to remind police officers that it is part of their duty to advise persons once they are taken into custody that they are entitled to the services of duty counsel,” he added.
According to Mr. Cruickshank, the roles of the duty counsel include interviewing the suspect, advising him of his rights and generally protecting him from illegal activity in the garnering of evidence on the part of the police to present his case in court.
“We have found in many instances that the duty counsel programme has assisted in many of the cases that do come before the court and prevented the abuse of citizens’ rights by the police,” the Executive Director informed.
The public education programme is slated to commence in the second quarter of this financial year and will have a multi-faceted approach.
“It will focus on advising persons as to the provisions under the Legal Aid Act, especially as it relates to duty counsel, advising them about their rights under the Bail Act, including the fact that they are entitled to bail for most offences, especially at the police station, once they can satisfy certain criteria,” he noted.
“We will also be sensitizing the public that they must insist on their rights if and when the unfortunate situation occurs that they are taken into custody by a member of the security forces,” he added, noting that the campaign would be held across the island.
Mr. Cruickshank explained that a major strategy is to piggyback on other meetings to get the message across.
“We are trying to piggyback on things like parent teacher meetings, other civic groups that meet, citizen associations and so on. We find that once we have a captive audience, they show interest,” he pointed out.
“The only times people pay interest in matters of this nature is either when they are involved or close friends or relatives, but we will have to do [the public education campaign] relentlessly, irrespective of the fact that people’s attitudes toward the programme may not be as alive as we expect it to be,” he said.
In the meantime, the Executive Director is appealing to the public to support the campaign, because duty counsel is an essential part of the legal aid system. “Come out to the public education programmes when they are in your area dealing with duty counsel and legal aid,” Mr. Cruickshank urged.
Statistics from the Legal Aid Council indicate that a total of 438 duty counsel cases were completed last year.