DHAKA, July 29, 2020 (BSS) – National Legal Aid Services Organization (NLASO) under the Law and Justice Division provided legal aid to 37,718 people in the first three months of this year.
Of the total number of service receivers, 4,635 were given legal assistance through NLASO’s toll free number ‘16430’, 4,087 through pre-case management and 657 by alternative dispute resolution (ADR), NLASO sources said.
According to a data given on its website, NLASO provided legal assistance to 28,339 poor and insolvent people free of cost from January to March 2020.
The NLASO, a statutory body, is working under the Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs to adopt policies and principles for making legal services available under the Legal Aid Services Act, 2000.
Any poor person is entitled to get free legal aid services. Besides, any individual receiving old-age allowance, distressed mother holding a VGD card, women and children victims of trafficking and acid throwing, insolvent widow, abandoned or distressed woman, disabled persons and poor detainees can avail the free legal services.
To take the legal aid service at people’s doorsteps, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on the National Legal Aid Day on April 28, 2016, launched the hotline service and it became more and more popular over times.