PRESS RELEASE
A-G COMMENDS WORK OF ILSC
Having a transparent system in place and an independent system to look into complaints against lawyers were the reasons behind the establishment of the Independent Legal Services Commission.
Attorney-General and Minister for Justice, Mr Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum said that the Legal Practitioners Decree which provided for the setting up of the Commission was not new as Fiji had borrowed it from New South Wales and Queensland, Australia.
“It is simply a question of having the political will and putting our heads together to come up with a system that would work for Fiji and this is the result,” he said.
Mr Sayed-Khaiyum said that a report produced by Commissioner John Connors at the conclusion of the inquiry the latter undertook on the magistracy in 2007 found that there were various lapses within the system that ought to be addressed.
“One of the best ways of dealing with the system is to ensure those people who were part of the system are somehow or the other accountable and that accountability must somehow stand on a mechanism that is independent of the people who are going to be held accountable.”
“So in this particular instant, the lawyers previously were being assessed by their own peers through the Law Society. Now the clients have an independent avenue to go through and an independent avenue through which these matters can be vetted.”
The Attorney-General said that following the establishment of the Commission other professions have expressed the need to have a similar independent system created for them.
Commissioner Connors explained that that Commission had undergone minor renovations that included the installation of technology to improve its recording system.
“In addition to that we have installed some technology and some of it is still coming. We have reasonable security and there’s a reason for that. In this country, regrettably files tend to disappear at inappropriate times, we want to try and minimize the chance of that happening with the work we’re trying to do here. We’ve put in a network computer system which is to be backed up on a regular basis and tapes taken off site. Again, to keep some security and avoid glitches,” Commissioners Connors said.
“All of the proceedings are audio-taped at the moment and video. There’s to be a digital recording system installed and that will enhance the recording process and enhance its storage and transcription ability. I anticipate to integrate that with the video so it’ll be all one system.”
A morning tea was held this morning to mark the commencement of the operation of the Independent Legal Services Commission.
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