LA system specialists developed draft quality standards of free legal aid provision – Quality and Accessible Legal Aid in Ukraine Project

On 3-4 April, a working group meeting of LA system specialists took place in Kyiv, with regard to elaborating quality standards of free secondary legal aid in civil and administrative proceedings (hereinafter referred to as FSLA CAP) and quality standards of free primary legal aid provision (hereinafter, FPLA). The event was held with the support of the Quality and Accessible Legal Aid in Ukraine Project.

During the two days, specialists of the LA system reflected on the standards of the FSLA CAP. The quality standards of FPLA provision was another important topic of the meeting. As a matter of convenience and optimization of the respective work, the participants worked in three thematic subgroups.

The first subgroup consisting of the Head of the Department of Legal Analysis and Examination of the Coordination Center Hanna Meredova, Director of the Regional FSLA Centre in Khmelnytskyi region, lawyer Nataliya Stiopina, and Director of Dniprodzerzhynsk local FSLA Centre, lawyer Serhiy Lysak, developed draft contents of general quality standards of free secondary legal aid provision in civil and administrative proceedings. In particular, they covered the following issues: work on the contents of general standards; discussion of the possibilities of inclusion of the victims’ representation section in criminal proceedings into the CAP standards; work on the contents of sources that general standards are based on, and on main information sources that allow to verify compliance with the general standards.

Participants of the second subgroup, namely, First Deputy Director of the Coordination Center Myroslava Lavrinok, Deputy Director of the Regional FSLA Centre in Zhytomyr region, lawyer Nataliya Radushynska, and Director of Sarny local FSLA Centre Mykola Pavliuk, worked on the design of draft contents of specific quality standards of free secondary legal aid in civil and administrative proceedings and annexes thereto. Participants of this subgroup discussed in detail the contents of specific standards and their division in stages; contents of sources used as a basis for specific standards; main information sources used to verify compliance with the general standards; draft memorandum of legal strategy approval; the matter of formulating an approximate list of a lawyer’s file; annexes required for effective performance of a lawyer when providing FSLA CAP.

The quality standards for the provision of free primary legal aid were elaborated by the participants of the third subgroup: Director of the Regional FSLA Centre in Kherson region, lawyer Maryna Yelyseieva, acting Director of the Fourth Kyiv local FSLA Centre Serhiy Breus, as well as Chief Specialist of the Department for Cooperation with lawyers and lawyers’ self-governance bodies of the Administration for Quality Legal Aid of the Coordination Center Halyna Poplavska. The covered issues included the list of actions to be performed by an employee of the legal aid centre/bureau in order to provide FPLA and develop draft quality standards of FPLA.

Director of the Coordination Center Andrii Vyshnevskyi, Head of the Administration for Quality Legal Aid of the Coordination Center, lawyer Viktoriia Mitko, and Manager of the Quality and Accessible Legal Aid in Ukraine Project Oksana Kikot also participated in the group sessions.

Based on the results of the two-day work, the group participants prepared a single document, namely, the draft quality standards of FSLA CAP, which is to be elaborated and discussed further. Subsequently, under paragraphs 2.4.2, 2.4.3, and 4.2 of the Memorandum on cooperation between the National Bar Association of Ukraine and the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine in the field of legal aid, dated 19 November 2013, the document will be proposed for review of the members of the working group on the elaboration of quality standards for legal aid provision, established on 22 November 2013 (minutes no. 1) in accordance with the said memorandum and subject to subsequent approval by the Council of Attorneys of Ukraine.

With regard to quality standards of FPLA, the first draft, which will be finalized by the LA system specialists, was prepared based on the results of the working group. To this end, all local FSLA centres will receive the draft in the nearest future for review and proposals submission.

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