But what Cabinet is doing - or has agreed to do - is to bring the the Legal Aid Act of 2023, into force and to establish the Legal Aid Commission in the new fiscal year.
It's a great leap forward for the office which has never really had any formal direction. Under the new law, it will be managed by a commission which will have representation from the judiciary, DPP's office, the bar association, the solicitor general and the human development department. Sylvestre, who started his career in the legal aid office said it's an important means of delivering justice to everyday people and it will provide services in specific areas:
Anthony Sylvestre, Attorney General
"And so the purpose is to allow individuals who otherwise would not have the means to be able to have legal advice and to have legal service to, to - because the services are not, and are not limited to only representation in criminal matters, but as well in civil matters - so the intention is to have representation and legal services in family matters and administration of estate matters and in a limited number of other civil matters."
"Amongst the the services that this legal aid act seeks to provide is to extend the services to cases for emergency domestic, so, emergency services for domestic violence application."
"Where persons who may need to seek legal, seek domestic violence, domestic violence restraining order that, outside of the the normal court hours that that service is provided."
The full rollout will cost five million dollars - which the government will roll out over five years with one million earmarked each year.
