Bruce Kyerere

The President of the Uganda Law Society Bruce Kyerere says the that pilot schemes that were carried out in Entebbe freely handled over 300 cases and were managed by the Associations of Human Rights Organizations, the Uganda Law Society with financial support of about 13 million shillings from the Legal Aid Basket Fund. He says they carried out the schemes by enrolling a few willing advocates to provide these legal services.

Kyerere told journalists in Kampala that the pro bono scheme will aim at popularizing the provision of free legal services amongst lawyers since though it is a legal requirement for all lawyers to provide pro bono services, the idea has not been widely accepted and embraced in Uganda’s legal fraternity.

Kyerere says currently Pro bono services are being provided in an uncoordinated manner with no clear mechanisms for monitoring the nature of cases handled and how they are handled by the lawyers.

He says however with the national pro bono scheme in place, the provision of free legal  services will then be better coordinated and of better quality than before.

Kyerere says the law fraternity wants to do this as a way of giving back to the society and as a social responsibility since lawyers are called to serve society by helping especially the less fortunate access justice.

Though the constitution of Uganda says that every Ugandan is entitled to equal protection of the law and has a right to legal representation, this is not the case as the majority of Ugandans cannot afford the expensive services of the lawyers and yet people seriously need legal services for example to be able to present a case in courts of judicature.

By Tiberindwa Zakaria, Ultimate Media

The post Uganda Law society to roll out new national pro bono scheme first appeared on Uganda Multimedia News & Information.

Justice Tsekoko (in the middle)

In a speech made to participants in a workshop on provision of pro bono services by lawyers, the Chairperson of the Law Council, Justice John Tsekooko has said it is the duty of the Law Council to ensure that every advocate provides pro bono services to indigent persons in accordance with the law.

In accordance with that the Council made the Advocates (Pro bono services to indigent Person’s) regulations which demand that every advocate has a duty to provide free of charge Pro Bono services for forty hours in a calendar year to at least one indigent (poor) person.

Tsekooko says therefore the Law Council will ensure that advocates who do not provide the free legal services instead shall pay the requisite fees of about 20 currency points per year which is 400,000/= (four hundred thousand shillings) and that is if they have justifiable reasons for having failed to provide free legal services.

The Judge however says Lawyers that will fail to provide the legal services with no justifiable reasons and or in case they have justifiable reasons but fail to pay the 400 thousand shillings that is required for failure to provide free legal services, the law council will not issue them with practicing certificates for the following calendar year.

Advocates need practicing certificates to be allowed to represent clients in court and have to renew practicing certificates every year with the law council after fulfilling certain professional requirements one of which is now provision of free legal services to the indigent.

By Tiberindwa Zakaria, Ultimate Media

The post Lawyers to be denied practicing certificates for failure to provide free legal services first appeared on Uganda Multimedia News & Information.