The Cayman Islands Attorney General (AG), Samuel Bulgin, announced on Monday (25) in the Legislative Assembly there was now being drafted new legislation to address the mounting problems regarding legal aid.

Because of the Bill of Rights and Children’s Law the cost of providing legal aid has spiraled. This financial year the bill was over $2M and $1.9M has been budgeted for the 2015/16 financial year.

The answer to the problem, according to the AG, is to appoint a Legal Aid Director.

How this is going to work will rely heavily on the new legislation otherwise his/her hands will be tied. The bill of rights, supported by a recent legal ruling states that anyone detained by police who doesn’t have the money for a lawyer must be supplied with free legal advice from duty attorneys before they are interviewed in connection with any allegations of a crime!

So we, if the Bill is passed, will now pay for a new Legal Aid office with a highly paid Director to run it.

The new legislation will create a formal duty system, with lawyers available on call to everyone in custody who cannot afford counsel to get access to legal advice before they are interviewed.

And here is another problem. There are very few lawyers (a dozen is the oft quoted figure) who are experienced in defense work and will answer the call to give legal advice to persons who cannot afford an attorney.

Bulgin said the new provisions will clarify the scope of legal aid for criminal proceedings as well as civil and family law cases.

The new Legal Aid Director, he said, would be someone, a former lawyer, with the right experience who would look at all the legal aid applications and manage the pool of local legal aid lawyers.

With the pool being a small pond it shouldn’t take much work to manage it.

The problem and this seems not to be addressed, is the very low S135 per hour that is given to the legal aid lawyers. Try saying that to all the persons on the $6 minimum wage! However a large proportion of lawyers demand and get $600 per hour!

What is worse for the lawyers in the duck pond is they are not being paid for the time they have to spend with their clients at the police station.

When lawyers can charge 15 minutes at $600 per hour for sticking a stamp on a legal document I can understand the frustration of the legal aid lawyers.

Who ever said it was a fair world?

I fear the provision of a legal aid director is not going to solve a thing and will only add to the escalating bill we all have to pay.