A total of 879,929 people have received government legal services free of cost since 2009 till March 2023.
According to the statistics of the National Legal Aid Services Organisation (NLASO), 25,977 people received the services through Supreme Court Legal Aid Office, 672,801 people received the services from the 64 District Legal Aid Offices, 27,738 people got the service from the Labour Legal Aid Cells of Dhaka and Chattogram, and 153,413 people received the services from the Legal Aid Call Center.
A total of 353,656 people received government legal consultancy services by this time. Legal Aid Offices gave legal support for a total of 351,632 cases and disposing of a total of 175,247 cases.
A total of 82,588 cases have been settled since 2009 to March 2023 through ADR process, whereas initiatives were taken for 92,978 cases. A total of 154,020 people became beneficiary of ADR process. Moreover, 17,328 people received the services through hotline before setting national helpline call center.
A total of Tk 1.34 billion was realised as compensation through the legal aid services in last 14 years, the statistics also showed.
According to the NLASO report, a total of 105,650 prisoners have received government legal aid services since 2009 to March 2023.
Meanwhile, Chief Justice Hasan Foez Siddique has taken some special measures to strengthen and accelerate the legal aid activities of the country.
He has formed a committee headed by Justice Naima Haider, a judge of the High Court Division of the Supreme Court and the chairman of Supreme Court Legal Aid Committee, to provide necessary guidance along with close monitoring and speed up the activities of the Legal Aid Officers in 64 districts of the country.
Supreme Court Legal Aid Officer (Additional District and Sessions Judge) Farah Mamun will provide secretarial support to the committee.
'Monitoring Committee for District Legal Aid Officers' will now monitor the activities of the district legal aid office and give guidance to the legal aid officers, said a notification issued recently by Supreme Court Registrar General Md Golam Rabbani.
Senior lawyer Khurshid Alam Khan who is also working as a panel lawyer for the Supreme Court Legal Aid Office said legal aid offices must appoint more efficient lawyers and increase the fees of the lawyers to handle the cases properly and to get more success.
He further said, "Without having minimum 15 to 16 years' experience, a lawyer cannot handle a murder case properly. So, the legal aid offices need more senior lawyers. The legal aid office cannot seek review of a judgement which is a very weak point of its jurisdiction. Therefore, the scope of legal assistance of the legal aid offices needs to be increased."
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