A Legal Aid Center - it's set up to serve those who cannot afford to hire a lawyer, and should be a standard feature in any equitable justice system. But in Belize, the system has long been inactive - wound down by poor administration and indifference from legal practitioners. But today, a reinvigorated program was opened under the patronage of the Governor General. It's called the Legal Advice and Services Center headquartered above the Vital Statistics Unit on Gabourel Lane. Initially, it will have the full time employ of Attorney Merlene Moody Matute - with voluntary contributions of services made by members of the bar. Attorney General Godfrey Smith - who had promised the center when he first took up his cabinet post - said that it will do much to even the scales in our adversarial justice system:
Godfrey Smith, Attorney General of Belize
The evolution and development of the Legal Advice and Services Center is important from the point of view of just being able to give access to people who can't afford to have lawyers. Secondly, when it comes to the trial process of the legal system, as you know, it's adversarial, which means that each side must be vigorously argued. I would say that substantial if not the majority of cases that come before the Magistrates Court and the Supreme Court, the litigants, the persons, do not have representation, so it's one-sided. It's one-sided in a system that is meant to be vigorously two-sided. So that must mean that that has implications for the quality of the delivery of justice you are having in the legal process. Therefore, this Legal Advice and Services Center is trying once again to assist those who can't afford lawyers to have some kind of representation.
The Legal Aid and Services Center is financed by a sharp increase in professional license that attorneys must pay government annually.