kuala lumpur
Legal aid booths to be opened in courts across the peninsula
KUALA LUMPUR: Legal aid booths will be opened next month for the public at court premises across Peninsular Malaysia.
Malaysian Bar president Karen Cheah Yee Lynn said the booth, to operate on the first Wednesday of every month, also ensures that impecunious persons receive legal advice and representation.
She said there are now 14 legal aid centers in Peninsular Malaysia, catering to every state, and they have assisted more than 124,000 people over the past decade.
“Interestingly, if we assume that professional fees were at a nominal rate of RM1,000 per file, our volunteer members would have provided legal services valued at RM120 million in the last decade. The KL legal aid center alone assisted over 2,700 foreigners in 2023 .
“At this point, I would like to mention another initiative by our National Legal Aid & YBGK Committee—each and every member of the Bar Council, including its office bearers, has pledged their commitment to handling one legal aid case in a year, volunteering to be on duty at a legal aid center, or participate in legal awareness or outreach programs organized by State Legal Aid Centres,” she said.
She said this on Monday (March 11) at the launch of ‘Guaman Majlis Peguam Assistance Day’ at the Kuala Lumpur Courts Complex here, which Chief Justice Tun Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat officiated.
Cheah further said that it is priceless when people are offered assistance expecting nothing in return, adding that she believes such assistance has the potential for great impact, affecting legal aid recipients, their family members, and possibly even future generations.
Touching on the background of the legal aid centre, Cheah said the Bar Council started its first center in 1980, first in a small village coffee shop and later in a wooden shack in the then-fishing village of Bayan
Bar setting up monthly legal aid booths in courts to assist the public
KUALA LUMPUR: The Bar Council has designated the first Wednesday of each month to provide legal aid to the public at courthouses across the peninsula, Malaysian Bar president Karen Cheah said.
“This is to provide the public access to justice,” she said when launching the council’s Legal Aid Day today.
The event, undertaken in collaboration with the judiciary, the Bar Council National Legal Aid Committee and the National Legal Aid Foundation, was officiated by Chief Justice Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat at the Kuala Lumpur court complex.
Elaborating on how legal aid services will be implemented, committee chairman Abdul Fareed Abdul Gafoor said lawyers will be assigned to man booths set up in courts beginning next month.
“Our members will attend to queries from the public, provide advice and, if necessary be, mitigate criminal cases in which an accused pleads guilty,” he told FMT.
Fareed, a former Bar president, said the first of such booths had been set up in the Kuala Lumpur court complex.
“From next month, more booths will be set up in other courts on the peninsula,” he said.
In her speech, Cheah said the importance of legal aid is found in Article 8 of the Federal Constitution, which states that all persons are equal before the law and entitled to the equal protection of the law.
“This applies regardless of a person’s income or resources. Everyone ought to have equal access to justice,” she said.
Cheah will relinquish her post as Bar president on Saturday after having served a two-year term.
She said the council started its first Legal Aid Center in 1980, first in a small village coffee shop and later in a wooden shack in the then fishing village