West­min James

What is le­gal aid?

The Le­gal Aid and Ad­vi­so­ry Au­thor­i­ty is a unit of the Min­istry of Le­gal Af­fairs that pro­vides le­gal ad­vice and rep­re­sen­ta­tion to cit­i­zens of T&T who may not be able to af­ford the ser­vices of an at­tor­ney-at-law. The Le­gal Aid and Ad­vice Act, Chap­ter 7:07 pro­vides for the op­er­a­tions of the au­thor­i­ty.

Who is el­i­gi­ble for le­gal aid?

In High Court Civ­il mat­ters, el­i­gi­bil­i­ty for le­gal aid is based on a num­ber of fac­tors:

The au­thor­i­ty must be sat­is­fied that the ap­pli­cant's dis­pos­able cap­i­tal does not ex­ceed a max­i­mum val­ue of $5,000 and dis­pos­able in­come does not ex­ceed $7,000 an­nu­al­ly af­ter cer­tain de­duc­tions are made.

The au­thor­i­ty must al­so be sat­is­fied that the per­son has rea­son­able grounds for tak­ing, de­fend­ing, con­tin­u­ing or be­ing a par­ty to any pro­ceed­ings.

In crim­i­nal high court and mag­is­trates' court mat­ters the de­ci­sion for le­gal aid is strict­ly up to the judge or mag­is­trate be­fore whom the ap­pli­ca­tion is brought. Where, how­ev­er, there is any doubt as to the ap­pli­cant's el­i­gi­bil­i­ty for aid, le­gal aid is usu­al­ly grant­ed in the in­ter­est of jus­tice.

What kind of mat­ters does le­gal aid han­dle?

The au­thor­i­ty can pro­vide an at­tor­ney in crim­i­nal mat­ters in­volv­ing:

In­dictable of­fences – this is an of­fence where the per­son would be tried by a judge and ju­ry;

Sum­ma­ry of­fences – this is usu­al­ly a crim­i­nal mat­ter tried by the mag­is­trate's court

All of­fences where the per­son charged in a court of sum­ma­ry ju­ris­dic­tion is a child or young per­son; and

Pro­ceed­ings be­fore a coro­ner's court, that is an in­quest in­to the death of a per­son

The au­thor­i­ty can al­so pro­vide an at­tor­ney in Civ­il law mat­ters in­volv­ing:

Di­vorce

Cus­tody

Ac­cess

Main­te­nance

Guardian­ship

Do­mes­tic vi­o­lence

Pos­ses­sion/evic­tion/eject­ment pro­ceed­ings in­clud­ing mat­ters be­tween land­lords and ten­ants in res­i­den­tial agree­ments;

Pet­ty civ­il court mat­ters; and

Oth­er high court pro­ceed­ings

The cost for le­gal aid

There is a $10 T&T ap­pli­ca­tion fee for le­gal ad­vice. While an aid­ed ap­pli­cant does not pay fees to his as­signed at­tor­ney, fees paid to at­tor­neys as­signed by the au­thor­i­ty are pro­vid­ed for, out of an an­nu­al sub­ven­tion by Par­lia­ment. The Act al­so pro­vides that the ap­pli­cant may be re­quest­ed to make a small con­tri­bu­tion to­wards the cost of his mat­ter in civ­il high court mat­ters.

Pro­ce­dure for ap­ply­ing for le­gal aid

To ap­ply for le­gal aid, you must vis­it one of the le­gal aid of­fices, and:?

Fill out a form pro­vid­ing ba­sic in­for­ma­tion about your­self and the na­ture of the prob­lem.

You will then be in­ter­viewed by the le­gal of­fi­cer to de­ter­mine your el­i­gi­bil­i­ty for le­gal aid.

If you are not el­i­gi­ble you can be giv­en le­gal ad­vice.

If el­i­gi­ble, an ap­pli­ca­tion form will be giv­en to you. This form is an af­fi­davit and re­quires that you go be­fore a Jus­tice of the Peace or a Com­mis­sion­er of Af­fi­davits to swear that the in­for­ma­tion you pro­vide is true and cor­rect.

In the case of civ­il ac­tions, the ap­pli­ca­tion form must be re­turned to­geth­er with re­quest­ed doc­u­ments to the of­fice from where it was ob­tained. You will be in­ter­viewed by an In­ves­ti­ga­tor who will pre­pare a means re­port on your mat­ter. This re­port will be con­sid­ered by the au­thor­i­ty at its month­ly meet­ing and you will be in­formed in writ­ing as to whether or not le­gal aid has been grant­ed.

If the mat­ter is in the mag­is­trates' court or crim­i­nal high court, the ap­pli­ca­tion forms are sent to the rel­e­vant courts where the re­quest for le­gal aid is con­sid­ered by a mag­is­trate or judge. You must sign that your ap­pli­ca­tion is true as it is an of­fence to ob­tain le­gal aid with false in­for­ma­tion. Once le­gal aid is grant­ed an at­tor­ney is as­signed to you.

Of­fices

The au­thor­i­ty has three main full-time of­fices in Port-of-Spain, San Fer­nan­do and To­ba­go where le­gal of­fi­cers op­er­ate Mon­day to Fri­day and five oth­er part-time of­fices through­out Trinidad. These of­fices are situa�ted as fol­lows:

Port-of-Spain: Cor­ner Ox­ford and Ed­ward Streets (Head Of­fice) – 625-0454, 625-3215

Ch­agua­nas: Bor­ough Cor­po­ra­tion, Rate Pay­ing Of­fice, 24 Ram­saran Street – 671-0577

San Fer­nan­do: 3 Leo­taud Street – 652-1894, 652-1931

Ari­ma: Reg­is­trar Gen­er­al/Rent As­sess­ment Board, Pro Queen Street – 667-1700

To­ba­go: Fair­field Com­plex, Ba­co­let Street, Scar­bor­ough – 639-6531

Cou­va: Fam­i­ly Ser­vices? Cen­tre, Cam­den Road – 636-5267

Pe­nal: Debe/Pe­nal Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion, Dook­ie Street – 647-6302

San­gre Grande: So­cial Wel­fare Of­fice, Cor­ner Savi Street and

Boodooville Cir­cu­lar Road – 668-3366

This ar­ti­cle sets out gen­er­al guide­lines; all le­gal rules have ex­cep­tions and vari­a­tions. How the law ap­plies to you de­pends on the facts of your case. This col­umn is an ini­tia­tive of the Trinidad Guardian and the Law As­so­ci­a­tion with as­sis­tance from stu­dents of the Hugh Wood­ing Law School.