Legal aid booths to be opened in courts across peninsula

KUALA LUMPUR: Legal aid booths will be opened next month for the public at court premises across Peninsular Malaysia.

Malaysian Bar president Karen Cheah Yee Lynn said the booth, to operate on the first Wednesday of every month, also ensures that impecunious persons receive legal advice and representation.

She said there are now 14 legal aid centres in Peninsular Malaysia, catering to every state, and they have 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. The KL legal aid centre alone assisted over 2,700 foreigners in 2023.

"At this point, I would like to mention another initiative by our National Legal Aid & YBGK Committee—each and every member of the Bar Council, including its office bearers, has pledged their commitment to handling one legal aid case in a year, volunteering to be on duty at a legal aid centre, or participating in legal awareness or outreach programmes organised by State Legal Aid Centres,” she said.

She said this on Monday (March 11) at the launch of ‘Hari Bantuan Guaman Majlis Peguam’ at the Kuala Lumpur Courts Complex here, which Chief Justice Tun Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat officiated.

Cheah further said that it was priceless when people offered assistance expecting nothing in return, adding that she believes such assistance has the potential for great impact, affecting legal aid recipients, their family members, and possibly even future generations.

Touching on the background of the legal aid centre, Cheah said the Bar Council 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 that, at that point in time, free legal aid and advice were provided to factory workers (mostly single women) in the Free Trade Zone, as well as fishermen and farmers in the vicinity. – Bernama