May legal counselors provide legal aid for people with meritorious services to the revolution in Vietnam?
- May legal counselors provide legal aid for people with meritorious services to the revolution in Vietnam?
- What are the rights and obligations of legal counselors when providing legal aid for people with meritorious services to the revolution in Vietnam?
- What are the financial sources for paying fees to legal counselors providing legal aid for people with meritorious services to the revolution in Vietnam?
May legal counselors provide legal aid for people with meritorious services to the revolution in Vietnam?
Under Article 17 of the Law on Legal Aid 2017, legal aid-providing persons in Vietnam are stipulated as follows:
Legal aid-providing persons
1. Legal aid-providing persons include:
a) Legal aid assistants;
b) Lawyers providing legal aid services under contract with State legal aid center; lawyers providing legal aid services assigned by legal aid-participating organizations;
c) Legal counselors with at least 02 years of experience in legal counseling service and working in legal aid-participating organizations;
d) Legal aid collaborators.
2. The Department of Justice shall announce a list of local legal aid-providing persons and post them on the website of the Department of Justice and send them to the Ministry of Justice for aggregating and posting on the website of the Ministry of Justice.
Thus, legal aid-providing persons include legal counselors with at least 02 years of experience in legal counseling service and working in legal aid-participating organizations.
Legally-aided persons are specified in Article 7 of the Law on Legal Aid 2017 as follows:
Legally-aided persons
1. People with meritorious services to the revolution.
2. People in poor households.
3. Children.
4. Ethnic minority people permanently residing in areas with exceptionally difficult socio-economic conditions.
5. Accused persons from 16 years old to under 18 years old.
6. Accused persons in near-poor households.
7. People in one of the following cases having financial difficulties:
a) Blood parents, spouses and children of patriotic martyrs; persons having merits in nurturing young patriotic martyrs;
b) People infected with dioxin;
c) Elderly people;
d) Disabled people;
dd) Victims in criminal prosecutions from 16 years old to under 18 years old;
e) Victims in family domestic violence cases;
g) Victims of human trafficking cases as specified in the Law on human trafficking prevention and combat;
h) HIV-positive people.
The Government shall stipulate in detail the financial difficulties of legally-aided persons in this clause in accordance with the socio-economic conditions.
Under the above regulations, people with meritorious services to the revolution shall be legally aided.
Thus, legal counselors may only provide legal aid for people with meritorious services to the revolution in Vietnam when having at least 02 years of experience in legal counseling service and working in legal aid-participating organizations.
What are the rights and obligations of legal counselors when providing legal aid for people with meritorious services to the revolution in Vietnam?
Under Clause 1, Article 18 of the Law on Legal Aid 2017, the rights and obligations of legal aid-providing persons in Vietnam are as follows:
Rights and obligations of legal aid-providing persons
1. Legal aid-providing persons shall have the following rights and obligations:
a) Provide legal aid;
b) Be guaranteed to provide independent legal aid, not jeopardized, hindered, harassed or unlawful intervened;
c) Refuse or discontinue the provision of legal aid services in cases specified in Clause 1, 2 Article 25, Clause 1 Article 37 hereof and regulations on procedures;
d) Be trained in legal aid knowledge and skills;
dd) Ensure the quality of legal aid services;
e) Comply with regulations on the provisions of legal aid services;
g) Promptly comply with the Law on Legal aid and rules of places of legal aid provision;
h) Compensate or reimburse the amount of money already paid by the legal aid-providing organization to the damage sufferer due to his/her fault upon the provision of legal aid services in accordance with law.
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Thus, according to the above provisions, when providing legal aid for people with meritorious services to the revolution in Vietnam, legal counselors have the following rights and obligations:
- Provide legal aid;
- Be guaranteed to provide independent legal aid, not jeopardized, hindered, harassed or unlawfully intervened;
- Refuse or discontinue the provision of legal aid services in cases specified in Clause 1, 2 Article 25, Clause 1 Article 37 hereof and regulations on procedures;
- Be trained in legal aid knowledge and skills;
- Ensure the quality of legal aid services;
- Comply with regulations on the provisions of legal aid services;
- Promptly comply with the Law on Legal Aid 2017 and rules of places of legal aid provision;
- Compensate or reimburse the amount of money already paid by the legal aid-providing organization to the damage sufferer due to his/her fault upon the provision of legal aid services in accordance with law.
What are the financial sources for paying fees to legal counselors providing legal aid for people with meritorious services to the revolution in Vietnam?
Under Article 5 of the Law on Legal Aid 2017, financial sources used for legal aid in Vietnam are stipulated as follows:
Financial sources used for legal aid
1. Financial sources for the legal aid services include state budget; contributions and donations of foreign and domestic organizations, individuals and other lawful capital sources.
2. The funding from the state budget is allocated in the annual state budget of the legal aid authority in accordance with the Law on budget.
Local governments that have not balanced the budget shall prioritize the allocation of budget capital from the annual additional funding to support the settlement of typical or complex legal aid-related cases.
3. Funding for legal aid services of voluntary organizations shall be guaranteed by such organizations.
Thus, according to regulations, the financial sources for paying fees to legal counselors providing legal aid for people with meritorious services to the revolution in Vietnam include the state budget; contributions and donations of foreign and domestic organizations, individuals, and other lawful capital sources.
Note: Funding for legal aid services of voluntary organizations shall be guaranteed by such organizations.
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