Urgent legal aid
What is urgent legal aid and who are its beneficiaries?
Urgent legal aid is one of the types of the qualified state guaranteed legal aid. Urgent legal aid is provided to all citizens of Moldova, irrespective of their financial status. Foreign citizens and persons with no citizenship can receive urgent legal aid only in proceedings or cases that are within the national administrative or courts’ jurisdiction.
Urgent legal aid is provided :
• to any person that is arrested in a criminal or administrative offence / misdemeanor proceeding during the entire period of arrest, including during the examination of the request for pre-trial detention;
• to the suspect or accused during the examination of the pre-trial detention motion, in cases when s/he does not have a lawyer or the lawyer did not show up:
• to any person that is detained in a misdemeanor / administrative offence proceeding, in cases when the body that arrested the person is going to submit a request to the court for administrative detention.
What is the period during which urgent legal aid is provided?
Urgent legal aid is provided in a criminal cases during the entire period of initial detention of the person until the person is released or a pre-trial detention order is taken or until the person waives his/her right to defence according to the CPC of Moldova.
In a misdemeanor / administrative offence procedure, urgent legal aid is provided until administrative arrest is applied by the court.
The lawyer that provided urgent legal aid can continue representing the person until the end of the respective case if the person meets the criteria for receiving state guaranteed legal aid.
Who provides urgent legal aid ?
Urgent legal aid is provided by the duty lawyers that are included in the duty lawyers’ lists according to the duty schedule approved by the Territorial Offices. Each Territorial Office has a list of duty lawyers for every raion (administrative unit) from its territorial jurisdiction, and in Chisinau for each court district.
In raions or districts where there are not sufficient lawyers to provide urgent legal aid, the Territorial Offices can include in the duty schedules lawyers from other localities.
The Territorial Office can delegate the function of appointing duty lawyers in localities outside of their residence cities to other persons, informing about this the relevant courts, criminal investigation bodies and other state authorities as relevant.
Urgent legal aid is provided according to the Regulation regarding the procedure of requesting and appointment of a lawyer to provide urgent legal aid, of 14.07.2008. The procedure differs depending on the locality.
In the locality where the office of the Territorial Office is located during the office hours, the criminal investigation body or the body that has arrested the person is obliged within one hour from the moment of arrest to request from the Territorial Office the appointment of a lawyer to provide urgent legal aid.
The request for appointment of a duty lawyer is sent to the Territorial Office in written by fax or can be made verbally by phone and has to contain information regarding: the name and age of the arrested person; date and time of arrest; reason for arrest; the name, office and contacts of the person/body that made the arrest, responsible prosecutor or judge, as relevant; the time, place and the procedural action for which the lawyer is requested.
The request for urgent legal aid can be submitted to the Territorial Office also by the arrested person’s relatives.
The Territorial Office will contact by phone the duty lawyer according to the duty schedule and inform him/her about the request and all the data received. The duty lawyer shall appear before the body/person that made the request within one and a half hours from the moment s/he has received the call from the Territorial Office and has confirmed his/her availability.
The Territorial Office will send the decision about appointment of a duty lawyer to the solicitant within 2 hours from the moment it received the request, via fax or with the appointed lawyer. This information and the lawyer’s order certify the appointment of the respective lawyer in the given case.
The legal aid requests for urgent legal aid in other localities, at any time, and during out of office hours of the Territorial Offices, are submitted, by the body or person that has made the arrest, directly to the duty lawyer indicated in the duty schedule.
For this, the Territorial Offices are sending every month, 3 days before the end of the month, the duty schedule to all criminal investigation bodies and courts from its jurisdiction, including the contact details of the duty lawyers.
In cases where the first lawyer from the duty schedule is not available, the solicitant will contact the next lawyer, according to the schedule, including from the following days, until an available lawyer is found. A lawyer is considered unavailable if s/he is not responding to the call for half an hour.
In exceptional cases, where there is no available lawyer, a lawyer from another raion or district can be invited, provided the solicitant informs the competent Territorial Office within 24 hours.
The lawyer shall appear before the requesting authority within one and a half hour from the request and confirmation of his/her availability.
The lawyer requested to provide urgent legal aid shall refuse the request if s/he is not requested according to the schedule, unless the lawyers before him/her on the list are not available.
The lawyer’s presence to provide legal aid according to the schedule, approved by the competent, and the lawyer’s order are sufficient for certifying the appointment of the respective lawyer in the respective case, without the need of a decision of the Territorial Office in that respect.
The request for appointing a duty lawyer can be submitted as well by the arrested person’s relatives. The duty lawyer can take the case, immediately informing the Territorial Office.
If prior to the arrival of the duty lawyer the client will sign a contract with a private lawyer for legal representation, the solicitant shall immediately inform the Territorial Office or the contacted lawyer.
In cases of systemic ignorance of the urgent legal aid requests, including by ignoring the telephone calls or late arrivals, during the days on duty, the solicitant bodies can inform the competent Territorial Office in order to strike the respective lawyer out of the duty list or inform the Bar Disciplinary Commission.