THE Supreme Court has issued a new rule that grants free legal assistance to “children in conflict with the law” and other such “persons of limited means” by new lawyers who are now required under the said rule to render 120 hours of pro bono work.

The new “Rule on Community Legal Service,” signed by the full court and released to the media last Thursday, Oct. 19, applies to “covered lawyers” or those “who have successfully passed the Annual Bar Examinations and have signed the Roll of Attorneys for that particular year; for purposes of this Rule, it shall include those who will pass the 2017 Bar Examination [this November] and are admitted to the Bar in 2018.”

Among those exempted, however, from this rule are covered lawyers in the executive and legislative branches of government who have been in government service at least six months before admission into the Bar, as well as those admitted to the bar while already employed in the judiciary, the Public Attorney’s Office (PAO), the National Prosecution Service, the Office of the Solicitor-General, the Office of the Government Corporate Counsel and the Office of the Ombudsman.

Under the Rule, free legal service will be provided to “indigent party or pauper litigants, as defined,” and “other persons of limited means, as defined.”

Also qualified for free legal aid are “individuals, groups, or organizations rendered unable to secure free legal assistance by reasons of conflict of interest on the part of government-provided legal assistance through the Public Attorney’s Office; and public interest cases that have societal impact and involve a group or sector of society that otherwise would not be capable of securing legal assistance by reason of inability of other lawyers, law firms, or government offices, including the Public Attorney’s Office.”

The Rule, which also stipulates expenses in the course of pro bono work as well as penalties for noncompliance, shall take effect after publication in two newspapers of general circulation. — with Andrea Louise E. San Juan

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