BY: HAJA HAWA KOROMA & JAMES KAMARA-MANNEH
In an interview with the Executive Director of the Legal Aid Board, Mrs. Claire Carlton-Hanciles stated that it has been a rough ride especially with the huge expectations from the public about the institution.
Mrs Hanciles categorically stated that their services are for the people who make up the big junk of the population and are financially incapable of hiring a lawyer.
She discloses that the Legal Aid Board is in all regions and at chiefdom levels in order to render services to all the people, noting that the board boasts of up to 20 locations with over 18 lawyers between 2015-2020.
“For the past few years the Legal Aid Board has been able to give services to over three hundred thousand people nationwide especially during the Covid 19 pandemic,” she discloses.
She said the Legal Aid Act was passed in 2012 and they began the formation of the board in 2015.
The Director explains that Legal Aid Act provides for legal representation, legal assistance or legal advice therefore both civil and criminal mandates are cater for.
She said their criminal lawyers work with accused persons, whilst the civil lawyers deals with civil matters, properties, inheritance, marital issues, maintenance for children and so on.
According to her, they treat criminal and civil matters that stand a chance to win in court, but emphasized that their priority is to cater for the legal needs of women and children.
Madam Hanciles noted that the Board also has a program called the Alternate Dispute Resolution (ADR) service and most of their civil matters follow this trend, and went further to state that their service has been helping the court a lot because most disputes and conflicts are solved in house and they render the best legal advice to the people so as to dissolve the matter and prevents it from going to court.
She confirms a lot of instances where most Sierra Leoneans do not want to go to court so they try their best to settle their matters at the Legal Aid Board especially family issues, property and business issues and maintenance issues for women and children.
“For three years now we are one of the landmark institutions in Sierra Leone under the new direction and we have been one of the institutions alongside the free education that the government has taken to the United Nations to showcase because we have been successful in providing justice for the poor and marginalized in Sierra Leone”, the Director stated.
Law and Order, Access to Justice are one of the greatest achievements the board has achieved, added the director.
She also stated that their Radio and TV programs on legal education have also been a success so far and that it helps to keep the people in check and well informed.
According to her the Legal Aid Board takes pride in the reduction of the armed robbery rate as they counsel these offenders and the ones that deserve to be placed behind bars are sent there.
She continued that after they have served their sentence they are sent back to their various communities with enough warnings, discussions, counseling, advices, mentoring so as to ensure they become more useful citizens.
“This format has been effective so far” said the director because most of these ex-convicts do not engage in crimes after their encounter with them.
She encourages Sierra Leoneans to obey the law as no one is above the law and that whilst exercising their rights they must also be aware their duties and respect the rule of law as law abiding citizens.
Madam Hanciles highlighted that one of the major roles of the Legal Aid Board is to settle disputes among communities in terms of properties, quarrels, conflicts of interest and so on.
She cited a case between a handful of people residing at waterloo and Mr. Christopher John over a land property.
“These people are residing on a property called the Alton Estate at waterloo which they claimed have been sold to them by the Alton family and Mr. Christopher John wants to take up ownership of the land on the premise that he had fully acquired the land and has the proper documentation to prove his claim” she narrated.
The residents pointed out that they have their proof of ownership documents which they had properly registered at Roxy Building in 1982. The matter had previously been tried at Court No8 at Ross Road and the court had given its verdict.
The Director called the said Mr. Christopher John to verify her documents.
She also requested the presence of the land owner whom the residents said to have bought the land from to come alongside her lawyer and his land documents and a few of the residents must come with their lawyer and documents in order to resolve the issue.
She also requested for all the documents of the Alton Estate case that was tried at Ross Road Court No8 to be brought to her in order for her to study the matter and understand the verdict of the high court judge so as to know whether they might need to take up the matter to Appeal Court.
One of the residents expressed his frustration saying a lot of people have suffered police brutality because of the said property, their personal belongings have been vandalized and they have been treated as if they were foreigners in this country without a voice to speak on their behalf.
The director promised them that henceforth she will serve as their voice and none of them shall experience such an act again.
Mrs. Carlton-Hanciles promised to plead with Mr. John not to throw out the residents from the said property until the matter has been put to rest. She declared that her intention is to settle the matter tomorrow at the meeting between the said parties involved in a manner at which each and every one of them will be pleased with the outcome so that the need for the matter to be taken to the Appeal Court will not arise.