The main topic of the study visit which the LAS delegation had in the United Kingdom on June 19-26, with the organization of USIAD/PROLoG, was the quality monitoring of legal aid rendered on criminal and civil cases in Scotland and England.
The Georgian delegation consisted of the members of Legal Aid Council, the heads and lawyers of Legal Aid Service. In the frames of the visit, they met with the representatives of legal aid coordinating organizations, advocacy bureaus, professional organizations of lawyers and research institutes.
The topic of the study visit is actual as in March of this year, on the basis of the decision of Legal Aid Council, the quality appraisal system of the rendered legal aid has been launched for 6 months as a pilot project. The system is mainly based on the Scottish model of the quality appraisal which operates using so called Peer Review methodology. Namely, the public lawyers are evaluated by their own colleagues.
The information received during the study visit will help the members of Legal Aid Council, managers and lawyers of the Service to improve and develop the quality appraisal system.