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Description
The project aims to promote the institution of legal aid in Greece and in particular to collect research data on its practical application. The aim of the project is to record the problems and highlight best practices, to advocate with the relevant bodies and to provide recommendations for improvement. The program will focus on research and analysis of issues regarding legal aid services, in particular the issues that arise when the defendant is charged with criminal charges and has no financial means to pay a lawyer of his choice. In these cases the judicial authorities appoint an attorney ex officio for the first and the second instance.
3 experienced lawyers will record the court proceeding in cases where legal aid is implemented by being present in the courtroom from the beginning to the end. Τhe publication of statistical data and assessment texts on the practices, challenges and positive changes that have been recorded will follow through the development of an online website,.
Additional actions concern the organization of focus groups between legal aid advocates, judges and prosecutors in order to record their views, the organization of events and the writing of a practical guide.
Furthermore, given the deadline for transposition (25-05-2019) of the Directive (EU) 2016/1919 on legal aid for suspects and accused persons in criminal proceedings and for requested persons in European arrest warrant, the project will monitor the process and measures that will be taken and will contribute to the formulation of proposals for proper transposition. After the completion of the project, a detailed proposal for the reforming of the institution will be submitted.
Summary of project results
Legal Aid Watch project aimed to promote the system of legal aid in Greece and in particular to collect research data on its practical application. The goals of the project were to record the problems and highlight best practices, to advocate with the relevant bodies and to provide recommendations for improvement. The program was focused on research and analysis of issues regarding Legal Aid services, in particular the issues that arise when the defendants are charged with criminal charges and have no financial means to pay a lawyer of their choice.
This action benefited not only defendants charged with criminal charges who are potential beneficiaries of the Legal Aid, but, also, lawyers who are registered, or willing to register, to the relevant lists of the Bar Association that they belong to. Furthermore, this project benefits the relevant institutional bodies, the members of the Greek Parliament and finally the general population as a whole, since specific recommendations were made for the reformation of the Greek Legal Aid system.
During the implementation of the Legal Aid Watch project, for the first time in Greece, with the help of lawyers who attended and collected data for more than 250 first and second instance penal trials in Athens in a period of 12 months, a systematic collection and analysis of statistical data has been attempted. At the same time, individual interviews as well as focus groups with the participation of all involved parties in penal trials (judges, lawyers, defendants/legal aid beneficiaries) have been implemented, in order to collect, apart from quantitative, qualitive data too. Furthermore, best practices in other EU countries have been studied and collected. Following these steps, HLHR formed a comprehensive and informed view in regard with the issues that require improvement in the Greek Legal Aid system and documented its conclusions and recommendations in a final report which was sent to all member of the Greek Parliament. Moreover, a practical Legal Aid Guide was created and sent to all Greek prisons, aiming to inform inmates regarding the terms and conditions to gain access to the free Legal Aid system. The findings and the results of the project were presented in a short video and were thoroughly discussed in a final event. All the results and the materials produced through this project are available at legalaidwatch.gr.