By Alexander Bruzual Wednesday, November 25 2009

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LEGAL AID: Deborah Moore Miggins, right, is not getting any legal aid assistance from the Minister. In fact, the Legal Affairs Minister, Peter Taylor ...

Contrary to popular belief, remuneration for Legal Aid attorneys was never intended to be “a main source of income” for lawyers, Minister of Legal Affairs, Peter Taylor explained yesterday.

Taylor said so as he spoke at the Legal Aid and Advisory building on Oxford Street, Port-of- Spain, during a ceremony for the appointment of the seven-member Legal Aid Board.

In his address, the Minister said the remuneration for Legal Aid attorneys was intended to be more of a “supplement” than a form of income, as a means of acknowledging the service which the attorneys were contributing to the legal system.

However, referring to recent publications in the print media in which a judge professed that legal aid attorneys were being paid extremely low fees, the Minister said there was “more in the mortar beside the pestle.”

Taylor pointed out that for the past two years the Ministry had been working on legislation which would increase the fee’s currently being paid to attorneys, in keeping with the relevant “changes to society.”

He once again reiterated that proposed amendments to the Legal Aid and Advice Act were currently before a Cabinet Sub-Committee and it was expected to be brought before parliament for debate as early as next year. He also pointed to proposed increases to the quantum of the maximum yearly disposable income for persons wishing to access representation.

Gilbert Peterson SC, who was appointed chairman of the Legal Aid Board for a third consecutive term, expressed similar sentiments to the minister.

He said “adequate remuneration” would always be an issue in the legal service, as it will always be believed that more should be given for a service. However he said it should never be forgotten it was a service to the country undertaken by attorneys.

The issue of legal aid fees came to the forefront two weeks ago, after Justice Herbert Volney sitting in the San Fernando First Assize Court, expressed frustration with the system for appointing attorneys through the Legal Aid and Advisory Authority.