Access to the criminal Justice System through legal aid

Abstract

Preface provided by author:

Thus while it is clear and obvious that an accused person is entitled to engage a leal practitioner to assist him or her at trial as a matter of right, the question whether those who cannot afford legal representation, can as a matter of absolute right, demand to be represented by a legal practitioner has not been given the same attention in Namibia, in view of the developments that have taken place in other jurisdictions

The manner in which legal aid has been provided to the unrepresented and indigent accused seems to indicate that it has been viewed as a matter of privelege rather than as a matter of right. Moreover, legal aid seems to be readily available to those indigent accused persons who appear in the High Court, while those who appear in the Magistrate's Court are treated as less priveleged

I will argue as to why the granting of legal aid to the indigent accused should not be treated differently from the general right to legal representation, or in other words as to why it is imperative to establish an absolute right to legal representation. A comparative study will be employed in this regard, because the developments that have taken place in other countries in particular in the United States of America have been too significant to be disregarded by a country like Namibia, where law reform is in its infancy stage

The ultimate aim of this exercise is to try to put the right to legal representation and the concomitant right to legal aid in perspective, and to determine whether or not the approaches adopted or contemplated in other jurisdictions including South Africa ought to be emulated by Namibia.... the question this paper will attempt to answer, is the reason or the need as to why the indigent accused should be provided with a legal practitioner at his or her trial

The paper will also look at ways as to how the current legal aid scheme in Namibia can be improved in view of the problems that will be identified. In other words, I will attempt to offer options as to how the current legal aid scheme can be upgraded in order to make the criminal justice system accessible to all Namibians through the provision of legal aid

I will argue that despite problems of financial constraints and the high number of accused persons who appear in our courts, there are better ways in which the current legal aid scheme ought to be managed to insure that almost every accused person in Namibia has access to the criminal justice system, in particular to those indigent accused persons who appear in the Magistrates' courts