{"id":34366,"date":"2022-11-22T18:09:01","date_gmt":"2022-11-22T18:09:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/legal-drafters-shortage-haunts-ministry"},"modified":"2022-11-22T18:19:54","modified_gmt":"2022-11-22T18:19:54","slug":"legal-drafters-shortage-haunts-ministry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/legal-drafters-shortage-haunts-ministry","title":{"rendered":"Legal drafters shortage haunts ministry"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Namibia. <\/strong><\/span>The Ministry of Justice\u2019s directorate of legislative drafting faces an acute shortage of experienced legislative drafters due to a lack of incentives to retain and attract legislative drafters, the ministry\u2019s latest financial report has revealed.<\/p>\n

In total, the country has only two to three private legislative drafters with more than 15 years of drafting experience.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fact remains that drafting is a highly specialised field, and the skills of drafting can only be mastered by seven to 10 years of dedicated and continuous practice.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the last financial year, a drafter with drafting experience of more than 20 years went on early retirement. Namibia also lost two private legislative drafters with more than 20 years of drafting experience,\u201d reads the 2017\/18 ministry\u2019s financial report tabled in parliament last week.<\/p>\n

On average, the report said clients take two to three months to respond to requests for information or to give policy directions.<\/p>\n

The study also states that the designation of court clerks to deal with legal aid counsel applications under the current Act presented difficulties for the directorate of legal aid.<\/p>\n

\u201cDesignation of legal aid counsel requires an amendment to the Legal Aid Act,\u201d the report suggested.<\/p>\n

Following the separation of the justice ministry and the office of the judiciary, the report suggests that the designation of legal aid officers may necessitate an amendment to the Legal Aid Act authorising the minister to source the designation from staff members of the office of the judiciary.<\/p>\n

\u201cConsultations with the stakeholders are ongoing to decide whether an agreement can be entered into with the directorate of court services, in which the performance standards for the legal aid officers can be implemented,\u201d read the report.<\/p>\n

The concern, according to the report, has necessitated the need to formalise and regulate the execution of the functions of designated officers in this regard is that applications for legal aid from the magistrates\u2019 courts take long to reach the legal aid office in Windhoek for decision-making.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo solve this problem, performance standards were prepared for the clerks of the court, to guide them on how to handle applications for legal aid,\u201d the report reads.<\/p>\n

However, the report stated that the directorate of court services in the office of the judiciary has on several occasions indicated that they no longer have the capacity to carry out agency functions of other institutions, including receiving and forwarding legal aid applications at magistrates courts.<\/p>\n

Consequently, the directorate on many occasions received applications for legal aid very late from the clerks of the courts, the report reads. This, according to the directorate, has negatively affected the cycle time the directorate had determined to consider applications for legal aid within a short period of time.<\/p>\n

The directorate also noted that there is a severe shortage of office space for legal aid counsel countrywide.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt Kisting House (headquarters), space is a serious challenge as some staff members share tiny offices where clients cannot consult in private,\u201d the report noted.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Namibia<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Namibia. The Ministry of Justice\u2019s directorate of legislative drafting faces an acute shortage of experienced legislative drafters due to a lack of incentives to retain and attract legislative drafters, the ministry\u2019s latest financial report has revealed. In total, the country has only two to three private legislative drafters with more than 15 years […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":34365,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,12],"tags":[234,236,233],"class_list":["post-34366","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-policy","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-namibia","tag-namibia"],"yoast_head":"\nLegal drafters shortage haunts ministry - Namibia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Ministry of Justice\u2019s directorate of legislative drafting faces an acute shortage of experienced legislative drafter ...\" \/>\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\/namibia\/all-news\/legal-drafters-shortage-haunts-ministry\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Legal drafters shortage haunts ministry\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Ministry of Justice\u2019s directorate of legislative drafting faces an acute shortage of experienced legislative drafter ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/legal-drafters-shortage-haunts-ministry\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Namibia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-11-22T18:09:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-11-22T18:19:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nambia\/sites\/29\/2022\/11\/postQueueImg_1669127972.05.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"480\" \/>\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=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/legal-drafters-shortage-haunts-ministry#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/legal-drafters-shortage-haunts-ministry\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Legal drafters shortage haunts ministry\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-11-22T18:09:01+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-11-22T18:19:54+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/legal-drafters-shortage-haunts-ministry\"},\"wordCount\":509,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/legal-drafters-shortage-haunts-ministry#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nambia\/sites\/29\/2022\/11\/postQueueImg_1669127972.05.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"africa press\",\"Africa Press-Namibia\",\"namibia\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"policy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/legal-drafters-shortage-haunts-ministry#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/legal-drafters-shortage-haunts-ministry\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/legal-drafters-shortage-haunts-ministry\",\"name\":\"Legal drafters shortage haunts ministry - 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