Head of Legal Aid Council Pledges Service for All Jamaicans

Executive Director of the Legal Aid Council, Hugh Faulkner, has pledged to make legal aid services available to all Jamaicans, regardless of their means.
“We are trying to ensure that not one citizen falls through the cracks, unrepresented,” Mr. Faulkner said in an interview with JIS News recently.
“The means test makes an assessment as to whether you are an individual who should be charged nothing, or charged a portion of the fees.so the citizen whose financial means are paltry will be at no disadvantage. That citizen is guaranteed access to justice through the Legal Aid system,” he explained.
Mr. Faulkner said that the Legal Aid Council, will also strive to ensure that the standards of service are of the highest quality.
“I am hoping that fewer and fewer citizens can be in custody and escape an attorney. Part of the mission that we must confront is to ensure that the standard of service is of a high quality, so we need to ensure that the citizen of Jamaica is confident in the lawyer that is assigned to him or her, as if [he or she] had privately retained that lawyer,” he added.
He said that the standard of service must be the same, so part of the Council’s mission has to be to ensure that every Jamaican citizen receives excellent treatment and their means must not stand in the way.
“Anything less than professional service that conforms with the Legal Profession Act can land [an attorney] before the disciplinary committee of the General Legal Counsel. So, even in doing our duties, we have to be tactful, sensitive and professional,” he said.
Mr. Faulkner also expressed gratitude to the attorneys on the legal aid panel.
He said there were 314 lawyers on the panel, of which 85 are senior counsels with 10 years or more experience. He pointed out that there are certain matters which have to be assigned to senior counsels.
“I cannot but thank the sense of justice that resides in our lawyers who have consented to be part of the programme, and they are making a great difference in the access to justice for our citizens,” he stated.
There are three legal aid clinics in Jamaica: The Norman Manley Law School Legal Aid Clinic, which is primarily a training institution; the Kingston Legal Aid Clinic, located at 131 Tower Street; and the Montego Bay Legal Aid Clinic.