Qualified public defenders throughout the country that provide quality legal aid services at a reasonable cost, along with qualified private lawyers accepting legal aid appointments,
Functional legal aid managements institutions – National Legal Aid Council and its territorial offices, able to adequately assess the legal aid needs and adopt appropriate policies to meet these needs,
A network of paralegals providing basic legal and social services at community level,
Increased awareness about rights and increased participation in public life of ordinary citizen.
Implementation Strategy/Activities
The program carries out the following activities that will contribute to the increase in the access and quality of justice for the poor:
Technical assistance to the National Legal Aid Council (NLAC) and its territorial offices. The Law Program currently works closely with the NLAC gradually transferring the know-how, empowering the NLAC to become an independent agency.
Monitoring the quality of legal aid. Gradually the Law Program will move from the position of an active partner in the reform implementation to the position of a watchdog. Even if NLAC becomes a well-functioning institution, and public defenders are replicated throughout the country, there are still risks that the quality of legal aid will not be ensured at the desired level. Given the experience in the field, the Program will best contribute to the proper implementation of the legal aid reform by constantly monitoring and providing help on the issues identified during the monitoring. The program will analyze the role of qualified legal aid in the justice system and how it influences the broader justice policies, including budgeting, for example, if early qualified legal aid leads to a decrease in the number of criminal cases brought to court, then advocate for policies that would support active lawyers’ participation from the beginning of the criminal case, etc. Thus, the program will support demonstration projects such as the “model” public defender office and a scheme for providing legal aid at police stations. The financial and intellectual support to one public defender office will be focused on setting the standards for quality defense in the country, as well as start a new model of delivering holistic services to its clients.
Creating a network of community-based paralegal services alongside the community-based integrated social services. The Law Program with the financial support of the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) will implement the project “Improving Good Governance in Moldova through Increased Public Participation”. The component - “Legal empowerment of rural communities through a network of community-based paralegals” of this project will develop a mixed system for delivering basic legal advice and information in rural areas through community-based paralegals. Community – based paralegals will be selected, trained and accredited through a specially designed program under the umbrella of the National Legal Aid Council (NLAC). The paralegals will play a double role in the new legal aid system in the country, namely: (1) paralegals would be the entry point into the legal aid system at the rural communities level, offering primary legal assistance to anyone who would ask for, keeping the system in this way open to the general public, and (2) paralegals would act as referral points for persons in need of qualified legal services. In this way a holistic system incorporating not only city-based legal aid services, but also basic legal advice and information at rural community level will be achieved.
