The Committee on Legal Policy held the round table discussion on the analysis of the compliance of the draft law “On Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of Ukraine on Facilitating Access to Free Legal Aid and Improving the Quality of its Provision” (No. 5107) with Council of Europe standards in the field of free legal aid.
The draft law “On Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of Ukraine on Facilitating Access to Free Legal Aid and Improving the Quality of its Provision” (No. 5107) provides for the simplification of the mechanism for organizing the provision of free legal aid to clients and the expansion of the subjects of receiving free legal aid, the settlement of the issue of mandatory participation of a lawyer in the consideration of certain categories of cases.
During the round table, its participants got acquainted with the conclusions and recommendations to this bill of the international expert of the Council of Europe Oleksander Ovchinnikov. He noted that more than 70% of the changes do not raise questions and comments in terms of the Council of Europe standards. According to him, the key shortcomings of the bill, in particular, are the model for assessing the quality of assistance contained in Article 62. Other articles, in his opinion, can be finalized. He also added that it is advisable to add a standard for assessing the prospects of cases, as it works in France.
Council of Europe expert Velislava Delcheva spoke about the experience of providing free legal aid services to socially vulnerable people, including children, in the member states of the Council of Europe.
Also during the round table, experts discussed the issues of guarantees of the legal profession in the context of the bill No. 5107.
Participants provided comments and suggestions on improvement the draft law.
The event was conducted by the Committee on Legal Policy in cooperation with the Council of Europe project "Support to the Judiciary of Ukraine in Ensuring Better Access to Justice".