Legal Aid Reform

Legal Assistance for Indigent Persons

Throughout the world, most persons charged with crimes cannot afford to retain private counsel. Inefficient and underfunded government programs render hollow the promise of effective legal assistance for indigent criminal defendants—a right enshrined in international law and numerous constitutions. In some jurisdictions, mandatory legal aid is provided only for the most serious crimes—many accused are not covered at all. Even where legal aid is provided, many states operate an ex officio system of assigning private counsel at state expense—which typically yields underpaid lawyers, deficient representation and sub-standard justice. All too often, the outcomes of criminal proceedings—guilt or innocence, freedom or detention—hinge arbitrarily on defendants’ finances.

Notwithstanding these problems, legal aid for criminal defendants is often overlooked in donor-supported criminal justice initiatives. Legislatures and national policy-makers preoccupied with other aspects of criminal justice reform often fail to accord comparable recognition to the urgency and complexity of ensuring adequate representation for those accused of crime. As a result, government policy in this area is often ad hoc or ill-conceived.

The Justice Initiative aims to expand government financial and political support for legal aid; promote development of reliable models for assuring effective legal representation; and improve the quality of criminal defense advocacy and of paralegal services.

The principal objectives of the Justice Initiative’s efforts in the field of access to justice are:

• to expand government financial and political backing for legal aid in criminal cases;
• to support the development of reliable models for assuring consistently effective legal services;
• to improve the quality of counsel afforded indigent defendants; and to promote the development of skilled criminal defense advocates and paralegal services; and
• In certain circumstances, to promote the development of paralegal services and other mechanisms for broadening public access to legal remedies.

To further these goals, the Justice Initiative undertakes a range of activities, including the following:

• Offer comparative models of legal aid to governments interested in reforming state supported indigent criminal defense;
• Assist national advocacy organizations in developing and implementing campaigns to build public and government support for improved criminal defense advocacy as a component of a sound justice system;
• Support the development of demonstration legal aid/public defender offices in cooperation with governments;
• Support research to document due process violations flowing from inadequate legal aid provision and to ascertain comparative costs of alternative models;
• Assist in training of criminal defense lawyers through workshops, seminars and fellowships for young lawyers in criminal defense;
• Support litigation to challenge inadequacies in legal aid which threaten fundamental human rights;
• Promote more informal paralegal services in places where basic access to justice opportunities and infrastructures are absent;
• Promote a pro bono service culture and tradition within the legal profession.