Dear Mr. LeBlanc:
This email is further to your complaint to the Office of the Ombudsman
with respect to the refusal of your application for a Legal Aid
Certificate. I wish to advise you that in accordance with the Legal Aid Act
and a relevant regulation under the Act, Regulation 84-112 - Legal Aid
Regulation, you may appeal the rejection of your application for Legal
Aid.
I recommend that you appeal the refusal of your application in
accordance with sections 41 and 42(1) of the Legal Aid Regulation by submitting
Form 7. The relevant provisions pertinent to your right to appeal
under the Legal Aid Regulation are provided below:
41 Where an area director refuses to issue or amend a legal aid
certificate or determines that he will issue a certificate on condition that
the applicant make a contribution to the cost of the legal aid applied
for, he shall notify the applicant in Form 6 and shall furnish the
applicant with Form 7 and, where appropriate, Form 4.
42(1) Where an applicant wishes to appeal a decision referred to in
section 41, he shall complete Form 7 and deliver it to the office of the
area director whose decision is being appealed.
Officials from the Legal Aid Services Commission informed us that they
mailed you a letter with Form 7 on August 2, 2006, but have not yet
received your appeal submission. If you have not yet received the letter
and/or have misplaced the form you can locate a copy of Form 7 online
at:
http://www.gnb.ca/0062/regs/pics/84-112.pdf
opening the PDF file I have attached. Officials also advised this office
that it is not an available option for you to submit Form 7 by email;
the form must be hand delivered or mailed to the Saint John District
Office.
Based on the nature of the charge against you, which is a summary
conviction offence, the New Brunswick Legal Aid Services Commission is not
obliged to provide you with a Legal Aid Certificate. The Commission
will in some circumstances make an exception to their policy for persons
charged with summary conviction offences if one of the three following
circumstances exists:
- there is a likelihood of imprisonment or loss of means of
earning a livelihood upon conviction;
- there are circumstances that would serve to mitigate the
severity of the imposed penalty; or
- due to extraordinary circumstances, it is in the best
interests of justice that the applicant be given legal representation.
I recommend that in your appeal application you raise the third
criteria, extraordinary circumstances and the best interests of justice, as
the reason you should be eligible for a Legal Aid Certificate. Given the
unusual and extraordinary circumstances that led to charges being laid
against you and the uniqueness of your case it could be argued that it
would be in the best interests of justice that you are provided with
legal representation. The protest that led to your summary conviction
involved extraordinary circumstances, meriting legal representation, as
you claim that the police failed to understand that as a blogger you
were not acting as a participant in the demonstration. Further, blogging
is a new phenomenon and the handling of your court case could become a
significant part of a larger body of law binding on other citizens and
bloggers. Based on the implication the findings will have on others,
you could argue that it is in the public interest that you receive a
fair hearing, part of which mandates the provision of legal
representation.
I trust the above is satisfactory to aid with your appeal. However,
should you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me
personally at this office.
Yours truly,
Bernard Richard
Ombudsman
No comments:
Post a Comment