Legal Aid Service Provider's Network

1.0 Introduction. In December 2019, with support from the Democratic Governance Facility (DGF), LASPNET established the Legal Aid Call Centre. The call centre was established to facilitate and enable fast responder services for clients seeking legal assistance. The facility focuses on offering on-spot basic legal advice, counselling and providing guidance as well as strengthening referral pathways to call -in-clients. This is a LASPNET coordination mechanism since Legal Aid Service Providers (LASPs) and other Partners bear a direct linkage to the Services offered underscoring the mandate of strengthening coordination and networking of LASPs, harmonization and standardization of legal aid service provision and delivery by the different service providers on a wider scope. 1.2 Mode of Operation.  The Call Center operates 6 days in a week, that is  Monday-Saturday through the toll-free number of 0800100155. The operations are supported by agents/student lawyers and volunteers drawn from partner academic institutions of; Uganda Christian University (UCU), Law Development Center (LDC), Makerere University, Carvendish University and once in a while qualified advocates step in to ensure quality checks of the services offered by the agents.  The referrals are made to mostly Legal Aid Service Providers (LASPs) and other Partner Institutions such as Justice Centre Uganda (JCU), Legal Aid Clinic of LDC (LAC-LDC), Legal Aid Project of Uganda Law Society (LAP-ULS), Uganda Christina Lawyers Fraternity (UCLF), Platform for Labor Act (PLA), Justice Defenders (JD), National Union of Disabled Persons of Uganda (NUDIPU), Human Rights Centre Uganda (HRCU), Local Councils (LCs), Police District Labour Offices (DLOs), The Uganda Human Rights Commission (UHRC), among others. 1.3 Achievements. Since its establishment, the facility has supported a total of 2800 clients with over 2200 cases closed. The facility records between 600-900 cases annually but has the capacity to record over 1000 cases when popularization and resource support are enhanced. The facility was very instrumental during COVID-19 as well as the Electoral periodswhere electoral tensions and pressures had risen in the years 2020 and 2021 respectively. In the above period, arbitrary arrests and detentions were highly recorded and the Call Centre facility played a central role in offering legal advice, securing police bond and bail services. An estimate of 50-80 cases were recorded on a daily basis as a minimum of 20-30 cases closed. The Call Centre was also very fundamental in referring cases to the Situation Room an emergency facility innovated to combat the violation of social rights during the times and over 100 clients received food, home use resource support, shelter services among others. To date, the facility remains a focal point from which the vulnerable and marginalized persons receive legal support by way of on-spot legal advice and counseling and referrals to their nearest legal aid service providers for representation in court and other related services. 1.4: Quality assurance: What some of the clients supported through the call center say.     In an endeavor to assess the quality of services and effectiveness of the facility, periodic client satisfaction surveys are conducted to obtain feedback from the beneficiaries to the services rendered, we capture some of their voices below; I thank LASPNET that contacted my husband who had abandoned me from hospital before and after I had given birth and compelled him to clear the bills to get me discharged. He is currently rendering support though we are not staying together Nyaragire Monica  When I called LASPNET, my issue was well understood and later connected me to a counsellor that rendered me counselling services which enabled me go over the marriage stress Akello Veronica  I called LASPNET on behalf of my mother and I was referred to Justice Center-Mengo which was very supportive and the matter ended successfully as my mother regained the land she had lost, I thank LASPNET and Justice Centre Uganda for the reliable services offered Janat Nyakato 1.5 Challenges encountered in running the call centre and their impact on Access to Justice The call centre continues to be affected with limited source of funding especially after the Donor DGF that set it up exited. The resources to support the operations of the Call Centre include monthly maintenance of service provider UTL; airtime, facilitation for the support team (student lawyers), popularization as well as system repairs and maintenance among others. This has resulted into Reluctance of the Agents to avail time to serve in the call centre.   Constant break down of operations due to lack of routine maintenance of software and hardware. Increased cost of accessing justice since clients now move long distances in search of legal aid and counselling services. 1.6 Strategies to combat the challenges    There is need to continue with resource mobilization means to keep the facility running