“A root cause of the large number of pretrial detainees is the dearth of professionally trained lawyers, and lack of Legal Aid Schemes,” she said. Nyenati Tuan, on behalf the government, signed the National Legal Aid Policy on Wednesday, April 17, 2019, at a resort in Monrovia after the one-day validation exercise. Also, the Liberian National Bar Association (LNBA) provides legal aid to indigents through their pro-bono services. Legal Aid GovernanceThere will be an establishment of a governance structure with an autonomous board of directors to supervise, monitor, accredit and mobilize and manage the legal aid funds. Legal Aid FundsThere will be a Legal Aid Fund established in the budget and donors will also be encouraged to support and the fund will hold all monies allocated by the government and received from donors, as well as any contributions received from beneficiaries of government funded legal aid.

Source: Daily Observer April 19, 2019 02:37 UTC