Service fees and other expenses for providing free legal aid have been revealed.
According to elchi, this is reflected in the draft law “On Free Legal Aid” discussed at today’s meeting of the Milli Majlis Committee on Legal Policy and State Building.
According to the draft, the service fee for providing professional legal aid will be determined at 0.0275 times the minimum monthly salary per working hour, and the service fee for providing initial legal aid will be 0.015 times the minimum monthly salary for each legal service provided. Additional expenses related to the provision of free legal aid (office, postal, communication, transportation, and other expenses) will be paid in the amount of 5 (five) percent of the established service fee. The service fee for lawyers involved in providing professional legal aid on rest days, voting days, non-working holidays, days of national mourning, as well as during night hours, will be paid at 2 times the amount established per working hour, while the amount of the additional payment for additional expenses will remain unchanged.
The procedure for payment of service fees and other expenses of persons providing free legal aid will be determined by the body (organization) determined by the relevant executive authority. Persons who have provided free legal aid will apply to the Bar Association to receive service fees and other expenses related to the provision of legal aid at the expense of the state budget. The Bar Association will make payments to persons providing free legal aid (with the exception of persons providing “pro bono” legal services) based on reports.
All documents regarding each legal service provided by persons providing free legal aid must be kept for 2 (two) years. Reports prepared in accordance with the form determined by the Presidium of the Bar Association will be submitted to the Bar Association once per quarter by persons providing free legal aid.
The Bar Association will publish summarized information on persons receiving free legal aid, persons providing such aid, services rendered (including “pro bono” legal services), service fees and other expenses paid for them, as well as changes in persons appointed to provide free legal aid and the reasons for these changes, complaints from persons who have received free legal aid and the work done in this regard, while protecting attorney-client privilege, on the official internet information resource of the Bar Association no later than January 20 of the following year, after summarizing the reports.