{"id":6230,"date":"2021-09-19T09:36:06","date_gmt":"2021-09-19T09:36:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/talking-blues-half-a-loaf-or-none"},"modified":"2021-09-20T09:58:24","modified_gmt":"2021-09-20T09:58:24","slug":"talking-blues-half-a-loaf-or-none","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/talking-blues-half-a-loaf-or-none","title":{"rendered":"Talking Blues: Half a loaf or none?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press<\/a> – Malawi<\/a>. <\/strong><\/span>\u201cOur lawyers don\u2019t even understand what pro bono means and have priced themselves out of reach from even the more than average Malawian. They have no business talking about their role in enhancing access to justice. They have none and can\u2019t prove this has been their concern.<\/p>\n

I like the comparison that has been made with other professions such as medical doctors and nurses (medical assistants, clinical officers, and nurses), accountants (bookkeepers etc.), etc. And it is also true that police officers conduct the bulk of prosecutions, and some do so very well.<\/p>\n

These skills can be learnt via practice. MPs must do the right thing and give limited appearance rights to paralegals who must have a regulatory structure for their legal education, admission, and discipline.<\/p>\n

The lawyers must focus on overcharging their clients and fake pro bonos; the poor can rely on inadequately trained paralegals. After all, a fraction of a loaf of bread is better than nothing at all.\u201d \u2013 Professor Danwood Mzikenge Chirwa, Dean of Law, University of Cape Town.<\/p>\n

Controversy was courted on 7 April 2021 by a proposal from the Legal Aid Bureau to the Parliamentary Legal Affairs Committee (LAC). Therein, the Legal Aid Bureau sought \u201climited right of audience\u201d for legal aid assistants, popularly known as paralegals, in subordinate courts dealing with matters within their competence levels.<\/p>\n

Currently, legal aid assistants cannot undertake legal representation even when the case is being prosecuted by a lay magistrate; hence the Bureau\u2019s advocating to amend Section 14 of the Legal Aid Act. What, you might be wondering, is the Bureau\u2019s basis?<\/p>\n

First, according to the Bureau, most criminal matters in subordinate courts are prosecuted by non-legal practitioners who don\u2019t have the minimum legal qualifications that paralegals have. Hence the Bureau wondering, why not paralegals who, at least, have something?<\/p>\n

Secondly, the Bureau says it attends to people that cannot afford to hire lawyers. These people end up without legal representation. With the Bureau\u2019s free services, more marginalised people can be represented if the Bureau\u2019s capacity is beefed up with court-attending paralegals.<\/p>\n

Again, the Bureau\u2019s 25 legal practitioners are overwhelmed. With a backlog of over 24,000 cases, they have 900 cases each! Is this sustainable? Hence the need to rope in paralegals.<\/p>\n

Thirdly, Malawi has about 627 practising lawyers who are inaccessible to the majority due to high poverty levels. As such, many Malawians depend on the Legal Aid Bureau. To serve them, there is a need to utilise all of the Bureau\u2019s resources, including its 35 legal aid assistants.<\/p>\n

Ironically, the Bureau\u2019s paralegals aren\u2019t allowed to represent clients when the Malawi Police Service\u2019s Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions\u2019 and the Anti-Corruption Bureau\u2019s paralegals enjoy the \u201climited right of audience\u201d denied to the Legal Aid Bureau\u2019s paralegals.<\/p>\n

As far as advocates for amending the Legal Aid Act to give paralegals more responsibilities, this would also help clear the backlog of 628,000 cases in the country\u2019s courts (as of 2020) and assist nearly 3,000 people who are on remand but have zero representation.<\/p>\n

By the way, with only 627 licenced lawyers, Malawi has one of the lowest populations in the region. This translates into a lawyer-client ratio of 1:30,000, whereas the Bar International Association recommends a ratio of 1:1,944.<\/p>\n

Put differently, we need at least 9,259 licensed lawyers to meet international standards. This, for the advocates to amend the Legal Aid Act, is yet another reason to utilise paralegals.<\/p>\n

Finally, those advocating for giving paralegals more responsibility contend that IF legal aid assistants were indeed incompetent, neither would lay prosecutors be allowed to prosecute nor lay magistrates be permitted to preside over any matter as they are not \u2018legal practitioners\u2019.<\/p>\n

This raises the question: why are we happily applying double standards? Shouldn\u2019t what is good for the goose be good for the gander? Now, in matters to do with lawyers, the only thing you can bet on is someone with a contrary view for each view. It is typically so with this controversy.<\/p>\n

Against this proposal is none other than the Malawi Law Society (MLS). It argues that letting paralegals represent clients in magistrate courts would compromise legal standards because the technical expertise required to handle cases before courts is that of legal practitioners.<\/p>\n

The MLS further says that while it appreciates that the Bureau is understaffed in terms of legal practitioners, cutting corners by giving paralegals limited right of audience is not the solution. The Bureau, the MLS insists, should lobby for more funds to hire and improve the retention of legal practitioners.<\/p>\n

On the low number of legal practitioners at the national level, the MLS argues that with the disbandment of the University of Malawi, more universities will soon be offering law degrees, and before you know it, we will have enough lawyers for everyone. Only if wishes were horses\u2026<\/p>\n

Anyway, the MLS further argues that going the paralegal way will entrench the social status of the needy by offering them less than the prescribed technical standard, which would be unfair and would lower standards when there are calls to raise the standards of legal practice.<\/p>\n

The bottom line is that as far as the MLS is concerned, it is not prudent to lower standards for legal representation of legally aided persons by allowing less qualified persons to represent them in court.<\/p>\n

The general public\u2019s take? This is where Professor Chirwa comes in. Look here, Now, what is the issue? What is so special about this case? As expected, the predominant view in the court of public opinion is that the Legal Aid Bureau\u2019s proposal is long overdue if truth be told.<\/p>\n

The 627 lawyers we have, billing 24 hours a day, seven days a week, are far from enough to timeously deal with the 628,000-case backlog in our courts, let alone find time to assist \u2013 on a pro bono basis \u2013 the 3,000 remandees languishing in police cells.<\/p>\n

I, therefore, submit that all things considered, Professor Chirwa is right: half a loaf, in fact, come to think of it, even a slice of bread is far better than nothing. In the vernacular, mwachaje sotafuna onthuni! No one should be denied representation if we can help it. No one.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Malawi. \u201cOur lawyers don\u2019t even understand what pro bono means and have priced themselves out of reach from even the more than average Malawian. They have no business talking about their role in enhancing access to justice. They have none and can\u2019t prove this has been their concern. I like the comparison that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":6229,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,6,8],"tags":[233,371,2445,1619,2347,234],"class_list":["post-6230","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-files","category-homepage-english","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-malawi","tag-danwood-chirwa","tag-lawyers","tag-legal-aid-bureau","tag-malawi"],"yoast_head":"\nTalking Blues: Half a loaf or none? - Malawi<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"\u201cOur lawyers don\u2019t even understand what pro bono means and have priced themselves out of reach from even the more than a ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/talking-blues-half-a-loaf-or-none\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Talking Blues: Half a loaf or none?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\u201cOur lawyers don\u2019t even understand what pro bono means and have priced themselves out of reach from even the more than a ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/talking-blues-half-a-loaf-or-none\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Malawi\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-09-19T09:36:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-09-20T09:58:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/malawi\/sites\/36\/2021\/09\/img-61485b1fbc642.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"533\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/talking-blues-half-a-loaf-or-none#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/talking-blues-half-a-loaf-or-none\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Talking Blues: Half a loaf or none?\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-09-19T09:36:06+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-09-20T09:58:24+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/talking-blues-half-a-loaf-or-none\"},\"wordCount\":1042,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/talking-blues-half-a-loaf-or-none#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/malawi\/sites\/36\/2021\/09\/img-61485b1fbc642.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Malawi\",\"danwood chirwa\",\"Lawyers\",\"Legal Aid Bureau\",\"Malawi\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"files\",\"homepage-english\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/talking-blues-half-a-loaf-or-none#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/talking-blues-half-a-loaf-or-none\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/talking-blues-half-a-loaf-or-none\",\"name\":\"Talking Blues: Half a loaf or none? 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