On February 18, in Borjomi, the heads of Legal Aid Service held a working meeting with judges and discussed with them further expansion of free advocacy service in civil and administrative law fields. Ms. Nino Gvenetadze, the chairperson of the Supreme Court of Georgia, Mr. Meliton Benidze - the director of Legal Aid Service, Ms. Ekaterina Popkhadze – the chairperson of Legal Aid Council and other members of the Council attended the meeting which was organized with support of USAID project PROLoG.
As a part of the meeting, the director of the Service – Mr. Meliton Benidze talked about legal aid rendered on civil and administrative cases and introduced statistics to the participants. The attendees discussed cooperation issues between the judiciary and Legal Aid Service in the process of appointing the state lawyers. The judges underlined the matters regarding which they think is reasonable to provide free advocacy service.
Legal Aid Service started to deliver free advocacy service on civil and administrative cases in 2015. According to the existing rule which stays in force until January 1, 2018, free advocacy service is rendered on disputes regarding family, inheritance and social protection issues. It is possible to assign a state lawyer on these mentioned cases if a person meets insolvency criteria and the cases is evaluated to be complex and significant. The court as well as Legal Aid Service has a right to appoint a lawyer.
Currently, with support of USAID project PROLoG, a research has being conducted which will help Legal Aid Service to make informed decision how to further expand free advocacy service on civil and administrative cases. Besides the judges, the LAS lawyers, as well as the NGO representatives who have experience of delivering free advocacy service, are involved in the research. The above-mentioned research is conducted by CRRC with financial support of PROLoG.