SIZWE SAMAYENDE, Nelspruit | Thursday
SOUTH Africa’s beleaguered Legal Aid Board has decided to drop private lawyers who are believed to be costing the taxpayer millions of rands every year. The tough new policy forms part of the board’s ambitious restructuring programme, which is designed to improve and expand legal representation for the poor.
Board director Odette Geldenhuys has confirmed a gradual phasing out of the existing judicare system. The private lawyers have already been replaced by full-time, salaried board attorneys at 24 new justice centres in major regional and district courts. An additional 36 centres are planned for 2004.
“In the past the board was forced to use private lawyers because we didn’t have internal capacity. But these attorneys unfortunately had only one intention – to make profit,” said Geldenhuys. “Close to two-thirds of our R320-million annual budget goes to private firms.”
Geldenhuys said a five-month statistical survey last year showed that cases handled internally by the board’s handful of full-time attorneys cost at least R1 153 less a case than when handled by private lawyers.
However, the South African Law Society argues that the board itself drove up costs by dragging out the consultation and payment processes.
The society’s representative, Hester Bezuidenhout, said attorneys waited for years before getting paid for work, while the board further complicated matters by making repeated “unnecessary” account queries and then routinely refused to pay lawyers.
Geldenhuys conceded payment delays, but insisted that widespread overcharging had forced the board to test all invoices.
Restructuring, she said, “will save us all a lot of money. Private lawyers currently charge for sitting around in court for hours while waiting for cases to be called. But our full-time lawyers would be at work in the courts anyway and will only cost a set monthly salary.”
She stressed that private attorneys would still be used in areas where justice centres had not been built yet or where there was a possible conflict of interest between co-accused suspects who applied for legal assistance.
“The board has approved a cross-sectional model that will ensure representation of the poor not only in district courts, but also in regional and high courts.”
Geldenhuys conceded, however, that the board had to date managed to serve only half of South Africa’s 240 regional courts, which in turn serve 400 magistrate’s courts.
“We know that we need to cover all of them. So, as a first step, we’ve identified 43 critical regional courts and will employ at least one full-time legal practitioner at each of them to represent the poor.” Special “roving” high- court units will also be created.
The Legal Aid Board has also brokered alliances and partnerships with credible NGOs that provide legal or paralegal services to the poor.
“We intend using the NGOs to tackle niche or special classes of cases, such as human rights, HIV/Aids and land issues. But NGOs must be prepared to charge far less than private attorneys,” Geldenhuys said. “NGOs will also have to agree to be audited both by the board and the auditor general.”
Geldenhuys said the board was funding “impact litigation” or test cases as part of the new proactive strategy and had established a 24-hour justice hotline.
“We envision the new system being supported by a proposed system of compulsory legal internship by candidate attorneys similar to the current internship system for doctors.”
Meanwhile, a coalition of land-rights organisations have set up an independent Rural Legal Trust to proactively represent farm workers, tenants and other poor rural residents in court.
Programme manager Gaborone Letlhogonolo said the initiative was launched because private lawyers often refused to represent farm workers due to payment disputes with the Legal Aid Board. – African Eye News Service