Lawyer for Free

By the end of 2007, Georgian population can enjoy free service of lawyers. Currently public attorneys can support population only in several districts. Although their activities are not restricted yet, since 2009 they will serve only particular categories of people.

How can we hire a lawyer for free? What kind of cases can similar lawyers involve? How reliable their assistance can be? Nino Khutsishvili, the head of the Public Attorney Service Department within the Ministry of Justice answered those questions in her conversation with the Human Rights Center.

Nino Khutsishvili: “The title of our service department-Public Attorney-is still preserved; however, very soon a new draft law will be enacted and the name will be changed into the “Legal Aid Department”. Our department was established to provide impoverished and socially excluded population with free legal aid-such as lawyer’s assistance, consultations, representing the client to the court. The state reimburses the expenses for public attorneys.

Journalist: As far as I remember, you provided free legal aid for the population of only certain districts in Tbilisi. Consequently it caused some problems; population complained because you were selecting clients according to their residential areas. Has the situation changed now?

N.Ts. Initially we had 8 attorneys in Tbilisi and 6 in Zestafoni. There were so many applicants for free legal aid that we had to increase their number in Tbilisi. At the beginning our department assisted the population from Gldani-Nadzaladzevi District, and some time later we started our activities in Vake-Saburtalo and Didube-Chughureti Districts. However, because of short number of personnel we could not open our branches in every district in Tbilisi. Some time ago we held competition and selected some more attorneys. At the moment there are 27 public attorneys in Tbilisi and it is enough for the whole city.

Journalist: What kind of situation is in regions?

N.Ts: In parallel to Tbilisi, we have already received applications in four regions - Shida Kartli, Kvemo Kartli, Mtskheta-Mtianeti and Kakheti. We started interviews on July 9 in above-mentioned regions. There were 134 applicants. After personnel are selected, new offices will be opened there too. Late in July we will start interviews in three more regions – Adjara, Samegrelo and Imereti. By the end of the year, the government has taken responsibility to provide the population with free legal aid throughout Georgia. We will also select consultants for the villages of Kurta and Eredvi in Samachablo Region. Free legal assistance is in great demand in the area.

Journalist: How much is the salary for public attorney and will they assist every citizen who applies to them?

N.Ts: The state pays the salary for public attorneys. The amount of their monthly income will be 900 lari in Tbilisi and 800 lari in regions. As for the selection of clients, according to the government’s decision, we will serve everybody until 2009 because there are some criteria that must be taken into consideration-there are people who can or cannot pay for legal aid.

Journalist: Will public attorney discuss only particular type of cases?

N.Ts. Currently we are not discussing civil cases. We discuss appeals envisaged under the Criminal Procedure and Administrative Codes; more precisely, cases on compulsory psychiatric treatment. The law states that an attorney should attend the case discussion and we have taken this responsibility. As for consultations, we work in all fields of law.

Journalist: How can people hire a public attorney?

N. Ts. The procedure for hiring the public attorney is very simple. A citizen applies to us with notification, then an application is filed in and the administrator appoints attorney for the case. The lawyer must assist the client at every stage-from preparing the documents until case-discussion at the court.

Journalist: What is statistics? How public attorneys bear their responsibilities?
   
N.Ts: In comparison with private lawyers, we have better results with public attorneys. In many cases, plea-bargains can be considered successful decision. Most of our cases finish with plea-bargains because the accused party demands it. However, we had some occasions when an accused was released from the court room. Prison terms are reduced in almost every case. We have received 887 appeals since we started our activities; we have provided 2000 consultations, 655 cases are discussed through and accused for 12 out of total 655 were found not guilty. 230 cases finished in plea-bargain and 232 are still being discussed.

Journalist: The activities of public attorney can be assessed as “Government against Government” How does the population trust such lawyers?

N.Ts. Our population never relied on public attorneys because of past negative experience; thus we did not expect to gain the trust in our citizens so soon. Anyway, public attorneys do not have absolute trust from the society. Although many people are too skeptic about us, they have no way out but to apply to us. Later, those people, who initially did not trust us, thank us over the phone. Consequently the number of appeals has increased lately.
    

Eka Gulua