KUALA LUMPUR – Legal aid booths will be opened next month for the public at court premises across Peninsular Malaysia.
Malaysian Bar president Karen Cheah said the booth, to operate on the first Wednesday of every month, was also to ensure that impecunious persons receive legal advice and representation.
She said there are now 14 legal aid centres in the peninsula, catering to every state which had assisted more than 124,000 people over the past decade.
“Interestingly, if we assume that professional fees were at a nominal rate of RM1,000 per file, our volunteer members would have provided legal services valued at RM120 million in the last decade.
“Over 2,700 foreigners were assisted by the KL legal aid centre alone in 2023.
“At this point, I would like to mention another initiative by our National Legal Aid and YBGK committee – every member of the Bar Council including its office bearers has pledged their commitment to handling one legal aid case in a year, volunteer to be on duty at a legal aid centre, or participate in legal awareness or outreach programmes organised by State legal aid centres,” she said.
She said this at the launch of the Bar’s Legal Aid Day at the Kuala Lumpur court complex here, yesterday, which Chief Justice Tun Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat officiated.
Cheah further said that it was a priceless thing when people offer assistance expecting nothing in return, adding that she believes such assistance has the potential for great impact, affecting legal aid the recipients, their family members and possibly, even future generations.
Touching on the background of the legal aid centre, Cheah said the Bar started its first centre in 1980, first in a small village coffee shop and later in a wooden shack in the then-fishing village of Bayan Lepas, Penang.
She said back then, free legal aid and advice were provided to factory workers (mostly single women) in the free trade zone, fishermen and farmers in the vicinity. – March 12, 2024