THE GOVERNMENT will be reviewing the composition of the Legal Aid Council, in order to include persons of other expertise outside the legal profession.
Minister of Information, Senator Burchell Whiteman, said Cabinet took the decision that there needed to be greater diversity in the composition of the Board than was now provided for in the present Act.
"The present Act specifies that there shall be no fewer than 13 and no more than 15 persons on the Legal Aid Council, but there are specific categories that are essentially persons in the legal profession," Senator Whiteman told journalists at the weekly post-Cabinet press briefing at Jamaica House on March 3.
He said the one year appointment of the present Board, legislation would be put in place to allow more persons from civil society, other than those specified in the law, to become members of the Legal Aid Council.
"It is the view of the Minister of Justice that persons with administrative and financial management expertise would be very useful on the Board," Mr. Whiteman said.
Meanwhile, a new Board has been appointed by Cabinet. It is chaired by Hilary Phillips, Q.C., an attorney-at-law of the General Legal Council, with Glen Cruickshank, attorney-at-law as Executive Director.
Other members include Carol Palmer, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Justice; Leroy Equino, attorney-at-law and Director of the Kingston Legal Aid Clinic; Ian-Max Cooke, attorney-at-law and Director of the Montego Bay Legal Aid Clinic and Maurice Saunders, attorney-at-law and Director of the Norman Manley Legal Aid Clinic.
Also on the Board are Angela Williams, Acting Director of Finance in the Ministry of Justice; Jacqueline Samuels-Brown, attorney-at-law at the Jamaica Bar Association; Lorna Linton, Q.C., attorney-at-law at the Advocates Association of Jamaica; Keith Sobion, Principal of the Norman Manley Law School; Jack Hines, attorney-at-law and Representative of the Independent Jamaica Council for Human Rights; Charles Scarlett, Assistant Commissioner of Police and Representative of the Jamaica Constabulary Force and Rev. Dr. Roderick Hewitt, Representative of the Jamaica Council of Churches.
The Board will be terminated on January 31, 2004, to allow for the review and any changes necessary.
