Legal aid covers divorce, death without will cases, others – Commission

The Legal Aid Commission has disclosed the kind of cases covered under its mandate.

Speaking in an interview on JoyNews’ The Law on Sunday, a staff of the Legal Aid Commission, Nancy Tetteh said the aid covers divorce cases among others.

She went on to say that their services extend to issues involving dying intestate – without a will, when distributing property becomes difficult.

 “We help in interpreting the Intestate Succession Law, PNDC Law in accordance with the sharing of property,” she said.

Madam Tetteh noted that the services of legal aid also cover insurance claims, property claims, maintenance issues, issues on paternity determination, matrimonial courses such as divorce, seeking an annulment of marriage, and properties acquired in the course of the marriage.

According to her, the Commission handles a lot of maintenance cases such as “fathers who are being irresponsible and not taking care of their children”, adding that this is followed by marital issues.

She stated that the cases are many to the extent that “we are not even able to represent them in court.”

Meanwhile, the Legal Aid Commission has warned that persons who deliberately present false information to it for assistance can be fined or made to serve a two-year jail term.

Affirming a provision read by the host of The Law, Samson Anyenini, a staff of the Commission, Saani Mahmoud Abdul Rasheed, stated that his outfit can even help people with a means of livelihood, hence there is no need for citizens to tell lies to seek assistance.

“If you’re truthful, chances are that you can still get the aid even though you don’t qualify [and] you don’t fall below the minimum wage. There are practical situations where we’ve had persons who have actually told you that, I actually have property, I’m no indigent.

So under the circumstance, people like that, if some investigations are done and we find out that indeed, these are persons who actually need the services at that time because they’re in a situation where they cannot afford the services of lawyers, then that exemption can be done”, he clarified.

“If you fail to be truthful to the Commission and they find that you actually came and lied to us, then you’ll be refused legal aid”, he added.

Source: myJoy