Description
The present project is an opportunity to improve the access to legal aid of socially disadvantaged citizens, by helping improve the overall effectiveness of the legal aid system, improve its management, decrease the number of the unreasonable proceedings brought to court and increase the functionality of its main elements. The project aims at developing the primary legal aid provision in the country through newly introduced services - a National legal aid hotline for free-of-charge legal advice and establishment of two regional Legal Aid Centers in Vidin and Sliven. Proposals for amending the legal aid legislation will also be prepared. Expected outcome of the project is the increased number of persons whose fundamental rights and interests are adequately and timely protected. The project is focused on the provision of “primary legal aid” to the most vulnerable groups of the population. Open Society Institute Foundation and Council of Europe are supporting the project implementation through transfer of know-how and elaboration of study/analysis on the provision of legal aid with recommendations for improvement.
Summary of project results
As a result of the project implementation the NLAB team can account for the following: - Setting up and pilot approbation of a national telephone hot line for primary legal aid provision to citizens within the NLAB; - Setting up a pilot legal consultation centres locally organized in the Bar councils in the towns of Vidin and Sliven, which are to provide consultation directly to the local community, including an office within the Female Prison in Sliven; - Update and amendments into the existing legal aid provision framework integrating the pilot services into the ongoing business of NLAB and ensuring sustainability in the long run; - Improved management of the system for provision of “primary legal aid” as a result of organizing two study visits for exchange of experience in legal aid bodies in Norway and Holland. The National hotline for primary legal aid and the regional centers as a model for outsourced services into a community represent best practice examples that have been successfully transferred in a similar partnership project between the Superior Council of Magistracy in Romania and the CoE. Progress achieved: • 10 969 pieces of legal advice provided through the hotline and in the regional centers since the start in October 2013 (for 22 months); • amended legislation, i.e. new Rules of Organization of NLAB to encompass the pilot services into the structure of the Bureau and ensure long-term sustainability; • more than 800 individuals approached the NLAB in writing to request legal aid through the traditional channel for the first year of project implementation to 34 individuals the year before the project started • decrease in the number of citizens’ application for legal representation at the NLAB due to the improved knowledge and understanding of the legal system and its provisions following the primary legal aid offered at the hotline and the regional centers. For a period of 12 months since the introduction of the pilot service, i.e. 28.10.2013 – 01.11.2014, the number of applications for legal representations filed has decreased by 2858 or 9%;
Summary of bilateral results
The second project partner – CoE – has taken part in the activities for improvement of the management system of the NLAB, namely in the preparation and implementation of two study visits in Norway and Holland. During these visits NLAB experts have had the chance to visit similar legal aid provision bodies and benefit from the exchange of information and experience on how to provide legal information to vulnerable social groups. As a result of the project no additional effects have been achieved at bilateral level outside the study visit.