Thousands of Jamaicans Benefit From Services of Legal Aid Council

n fiscal year 2024/25, thousands of Jamaicans benefited from the services of the Legal Aid Council (LAC).

“Over 2,000 persons were assigned Duty Counsel. More than 3,000 were assigned lawyers to represent them in the criminal courts across the island and we conducted virtual and face-to-face consultations with several more persons,” Executive Director of the LAC, Dian Watson, told JIS News in an interview.

A Duty Counsel is an Attorney who will make representation on an individual’s behalf at a Police Station or Lockup.

The overall mandate of the LAC is to ensure that all Jamaicans, particularly those who are vulnerable or who are of limited means, have access to legal representation, legal information and overall access to justice.

There are currently about 900 lawyers empanelled at the LAC; however, the Council is seeking to expand this pool, to ensure that it has sufficient lawyers to serve all 14 parishes.

“We’re always imploring lawyers to sign up with us. They just need to get in touch with us and complete an application form, submit their certification and their banking details. And we have an orientation exercise and then, you know, they’re duly empanelled,” Mrs. Watson said.

“So, we encourage the attorneys to come in. We do want to have different lists, listing their various expertise, so we want more and more attorneys to join us,” she added.

A focus for the LAC this fiscal year is to increase the number of beneficiaries, as well as to continue to do a lot of work with the mentally challenged inmates.

“During the fiscal year 2024 to 2025, 49 mentally disordered persons were assigned empanelled attorneys, while the Council monitored another 128 to ensure that there’s a coordinated system to track the progress of their matters, and by so doing, uphold their rights,” Mrs. Watson said.

“The Council also had a case of some mentally disordered inmates reviewed in the Supreme Court, and we were assisted by the Office of the Public Defender to locate family members and or a suitable location for them, and we did have two success cases. Initially, two persons were released, one is a real success story because in that case, the defendant, he was able to be reunited with his children, and he met his grandchildren for the first time, and the family, they were truly happy and grateful for that experience,” she added.

The Executive Director also reminded the public of the rights of persons who are mentally ill and have been incarcerated.

“It has been reported in time past that persons were left or were neglected in the system, that their matters didn’t go back to court. They were probably remanded because they were unfit to plead, and their matters didn’t go back to court. So, we have been following up, working with the Department of Correctional Services to ensure that these persons are brought before the court within a reasonable time. If they didn’t have a court date, we have the matters relisted so their matters can be reviewed periodically,” Mrs. Watson explained.

Persons can access legal representation for mentally disordered family members who are incarcerated, through the LAC or through the courts.

“They can make an application for legal aid, and we will assign a lawyer to represent the family member. They can come into our offices, or when they go to court with a relative, they can ask the judge there to assign an attorney in the matter,” Mrs. Watson said.

Going forward in fiscal year 2025/2026, the Council will be delivering training programmes for empanelled attorneys who deal with accused persons with mental illness.

“We will be commencing very soon with an in-person lecture, and this will be followed up with several lectures on Zoom. We want to be discussing, with the attorneys, mental health services, the role of the psychiatrist, and principles of therapeutic jurisprudence, because I do believe that the neuroscience should be driving the jurisprudence,” Mrs. Watson said.

“So, we need to be able to understand the client. We need to be able to ensure that we have fair and just outcomes for them. So, I believe that the training is very important.

If we are to protect their rights, we need to be trained, so that we can fully understand what their needs are, so that we can better represent them,” the Executive Director told JIS News.

The Council will also be focusing on women and children’s rights in this fiscal year.

“We see what’s been happening in the society. I think we need to promote the rights of children in the society. We need people to be aware of what those rights are, and so we want to focus on that. We’ve also been having some issues with women and abuse, and so this is why we want to focus on those for this year,” Mrs. Watson said.