Legal aid means the provisions of legal services free of charge to legally-aided persons in a legal aid-related case, contributing to the assurance of human rights and citizenship in the access to justice and equality before the law. Thus, what are the issues that need to be addressed in the legislation?
Article table of contents
1. Legally-aided persons
According to Article 7 of the Law on Legal Aid 2017 of Vietnam, the following groups of people will be eligible for legal aid when they are involved as parties in a legal aid case:
- People with meritorious services to the revolution.
- People in poor households.
- Children.
- Ethnic minority people permanently residing in areas with exceptionally difficult socio-economic conditions.
- Accused persons from 16 years old to under 18 years old.
- Accused persons in near-poor households.
- People in one of the following cases having financial difficulties:
+ Blood parents, spouses and children of patriotic martyrs; persons having merits in nurturing young patriotic martyrs;
+ People infected with dioxin;
+ Elderly people;
+ Disabled people;
+ Victims in criminal prosecutions from 16 years old to under 18 years old;
+ Victims in family domestic violence cases;
+ Victims of human trafficking cases as specified in the Law on human trafficking prevention and combat;
+ HIV-positive people.
These persons shall have the right to receive legal aid services without paying fees, economic benefits or other benefits.
Besides, they also have the right to request legal aid by themselves or via their relatives, agencies, competent procedural authorities or other agencies, organizations and individuals; and be informed about the right to receive legal aid services, order and procedures of legal aid when going to a legal aid-providing organization and concerned regulatory agencies.
2. Legal aid request
When requesting legal aid, the above-mentioned persons shall submit the required documents and relevant materials as specified in Clause 1 Article 29 of the Law on Legal Aid 2017, which include:
- Legal aid written application form;
- Papers proving their eligibility for legal aid as prescribed in Article 33 of Circular No. 08/2017/TT-BTP of the Ministry of Justice of Vietnam;
- Papers and documents related to the legal aid-related case.
The application for legal aid shall be submitted to the State Legal Aid Center or a legal aid-participating organization according to the list published by the Department of Justice.
The legal aid request shall only be accepted when there are specific cases directly related to the lawful rights and interests of legally-aided persons specified above.
In cases the requester could not provide sufficient documents but need legal aid right away due to the fact that the legal aid-related cases were about to be expired or the trial day is approaching, the presiding agency transfer legal aid requests to legal aid-providing organizations or for the purpose of avoiding damaging the lawful rights and interests of legally-aided persons, the recipient shall notice the head of the legal aid-providing organization and accept immediately, at the same time guide the requesters to provide additionally necessary documentation.
3. Is it illegal to "ignore" the right to legal aid in legal cases?
According to Point o Clause 1 Article 4 of the Criminal Procedure Code 2015 of Vietnam: “Serious breach of legal proceedings means that authorities and persons given authority to institute proceedings have not executed or have implemented improperly and inadequately the formalities and procedures, as defined by this Code, have infringed severely the legitimate rights and benefits of entities engaging in proceedings, and have influenced the identification of equitable and comprehensive truths of a lawsuit.”.
Based on this provision, "ignoring" the right to legal aid at different stages of a legal case (investigation, prosecution, trial) would be a violation of procedural law. The severity of this violation and its impact on the rights and legitimate interests of the eligible individuals would need to be considered. In practice, there have been recorded cases where the Public Prosecutor's Office has requested the Trial Council to return the case file for additional content regarding legal aid when it is discovered that the defendant is eligible for legal aid.
Therefore, to prevent unfortunate violations of procedural law, the parties involved in litigation and the prosecuting authorities must fully comply with the provisions regarding legal aid in their litigation activities. At the same time, they must also ensure the enforcement of the provisions regarding human rights recognized in the Constitution 2013 of Vietnam.
Duc Thao
- Key word:
- Law on Legal Aid 2017
