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KUALA LUMPUR: The Bar Council has given free legal aid service to about 18,000 people this year, valued at RM100mil in professional services.

“The council has been criticised for years, but it has not changed our stand for justice, human rights and the rule of law,” said council chairman Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan.

She said these were things that influence the council’s statements and it would continue to uphold the rule of law.

Ambiga said this when asked to comment on the suggestion by Muslim Lawyers Association president Tan Sri Abu Zahar Ujang on Nov 16 that the council give greater attention to the welfare of its members and that it be dissolved if it was only interested in discussing national politics.

Ambiga said the council was used to criticism of all kinds, adding: “We may disagree with people who criticise us but we respect their right to do so.”

“We act according to the Legal Profession Act which enjoins us to act without fear or favour in upholding the cause of justice and we have remain true to that,” she said after the opening of their Legal Aid Centre yesterday at the Jalan Duta courts complex.

Ambiga said that more than 700 lawyers from the Malaysian Bar volunteered their services annually and that the council spent about RM1.3mil in maintaining the centres.

With the escalating costs and greater number of applications for free legal advice, she said they had applied to the Government for a grant to help the people through its 14 service centres nationwide.

Stressing that legal aid lawyers did not get any payment, she added: “We are now more accessible to the public and the quality of our service has improved dramatically.”

Ambiga said that in 1982, the legal aid centre had started with only a chair and table in the Straits Trading building.

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