Sunday, June 28, 2009

Mandatory Legal Aid deferred

June 28 2009---The Supreme Court deferred until December 31, 2009 the implementation of the Rule on Mandatory Legal Aid Service, which should have taken effect on July 1. Instead, the Rule will take effect on January 1, 2010.
Under the Rule, every practicing lawyer will be mandated to render a minimum of 60 hours of free legal aid services to indigent litigants yearly, among others.
The Rule is aimed at enhancing “the duty of lawyers to society as agents of social change and to the courts as officers thereof by helping improve access to justice by the less privileged members of society and expedite the resolution of cases involving them.”
This rule was deferred as the implementing rules have yet to be finalized by the integrated Bar of the Philippines

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