Legal Aid Overload

The Legal Aid Commission is under increasing pressure as it struggles with a growing number of cases and a severe shortage of staff.

This is according to the findings presented by the Parliamentary Standing Committee of Foreign Affairs and Defence in Parliament yesterday.

The committee’s conclusions were discussed during a debate on the Consolidated Review Report of the 2018 to 2023 Legal Aid Commission Annual Report.

The report highlighted the critical challenges facing the commission.

Committee chairperson and Assistant Minister for Foreign Affairs, Lenora Qereqeretabua, highlighted several critical challenges facing the commission.

Among the most pressing issues is the overwhelming caseload per lawyer, with each handling approximately 121 cases as of 2024.

This, she said, has been exacerbated by a staff shortage across all offices.

Data

The report showed that during the review period, the commission handled many applications, especially in family matters, highlighting its important role in meeting the legal needs of individuals and families.

Criminal cases also made up a large portion of applications, highlighting the overwhelming demand for assistance in navigating the complexities of the criminal justice system. The remaining applications related to civil matters.

From 2018 to 2019, the commission received 20,753 applications across family, criminal, and civil issues.

In the following years, the numbers showed a decline, with 19,577 applications in 2019-2020, 15,921 in 2020-2021, 14,063 in 2021-2022, and 13,399 in 2022-2023.

Employees

• There were 188 employees of the commission in 2018-2019,
• 189 in 2019-2020
• 188 in 2020-2021
• 176 in 2021-2022
• 212 in 2022-2023

There were 22 resignations in 2018-2019, 16 resignations in 2019-2020, 13 resignations in 2020-2021, 24 resignations in 2021 to 2022 and 44 resignations in 2022-2023.

The committee noted that there is a vast difference in salary scale between the commission and other organisations that employ government lawyers such as Fiji Independent Commission Against Corruption (FICAC) and Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP).

The committee said that this was a major contributing factor to the number of resignations, in particular, of lawyers. The committee recommends that due consideration be given to the fair remuneration of government lawyers at the commission in order to retain experienced lawyers and reduce the high turnover.

Ministers voice concern

Minister for Lands and Mineral Resources and former Legal Aid commissioner director, Filimoni Vosarogo, said much has developed since the inception, from three offices in his time to 24 offices now.

“We only had 14 officers then to 80 plus now,” Mr Vosarogo said.

“The report in the past five to seven years have been consistent in identifying this as a major issue, we have lawyers in the legal aid commission that are handling over a hundred case files in a given year.”

Mr Vosarogo said for a lawyer to be handling this case number in a year was worrying.

“It is worrying for a couple of reasons, with a lawyer that is handling that amount of case files, they will not have quality time on each of those files.

“We only have 24 hours in a day, they will not have enough time to tend to those cases, do their reading, what will happen is the quality of justice that we will expect will be compromised without intent.

“They have too much caseload on their laps. I don’t know whether increasing the workforce will help.

“We might need to relook at the justice system itself.”

He echoed similar statement on increasing budgetary allocation for the commission.

“The other one is in relation to pay, I am sure the Minister for Finance to take on board a fair pay for legal aid commission workers.

“This is also for those in the ODPP, FICAC, etc, who are performing state functions.

He stressed that these officers should be compensated according to the volume of their workload.

Minister for Justice Siromi Turaga said that FICAC lawyers were paid a higher salary scale compared to Legal Aid Commission lawyers; however, the commission handles far more cases than FICAC legal officers.

“Legal Aid lawyers handle a higher number of cases,” Mr Turaga said.

“If anything, we need to reward their hard work. If their pay can’t be increased, how about implementing a bonus system?”

“In the Nadi Magistrate’s Court, Legal Aid lawyers handle so many cases in a day that they have to rush from one court to another.”

Feedback: inoke.rabonu@fijisun.com.fj