By Vivian Onyebukwa
In Nigeria, accessing legal service does not come cheap. For those who need the services of a lawyer, there is the filing of litigation papers, paying the legal fees, transportation, and all of that. As a result, not everyone can afford legal services. The present harsh economic situation has made it even more difficult.
Saturday Sun spoke to some lawyers, and they offered some words of advice on how one could have access to legal service at affordable costs.
A prominent Lagos-based corporate legal practitioner, who does not want his name mentioned for personal reasons, gave ten practical tips on how to reduce legal costs. They are as follows:
One: Try as much as possible to engage lawyers who have firms in locations close to the venue where your case or subject matter of dispute is pending. For instance, if a litigant has a case pending in Zamfara State High Court, it would be much cheaper for him to source his lawyer from any good law firm based in Zamfara State, rather than engaging one based in Lagos. The litigant would save a lot of money from travels, accommodation and feeding costs, as well as other out-of- pocket expenses if a locally based lawyer is used.
Two: It is also advisable to use a less expensive lawyer for cases that are not too complex or complicated.
Three: Interview several lawyers to select the one with lower fees without necessarily compromising standard.
Four: Always ask for periodic case update to enable you decide whether to intensify your effort at settlement or seek alternative options to conclude the case in good time.
Five: Give your lawyer 100 per cent cooperation. The litigant should always respond promptly to his/her lawyer’s request for information, documents etc, and keep him duly updated about new facts emerging on the case. Sometimes, lawyers, due to the non-cooperation from their clients, fail to file court papers within the time allowed by the law or court. This delay often attracts needless extra costs and in some cases penalties, which most times are borne by the client.
Six: If you are the type that does businesses that often expose you to massive legal disputes, it would be more cost effective for you to sign a retainer agreement with a good law firm, instead of negotiating and paying independently for each case.
Seven: Often explore the possibility of out-of-court settlement. Always see litigation as a last resort. Whenever you feel that your legal rights have been infringed upon, first seek the possibility of seeking redress via mediation or arbitration. Also, as a defendant, try and engage the complainant to explore the possibility of settling the matter amicably out of court before continuing with full-blown litigation. Many times, judgment debts given by courts are lower than the cost and stress of litigation.
Eight: Corporate organisations and institutions should embrace the practice of hiring competent in-house lawyers who would be attending to their daily legal needs, instead of paying external lawyers heavily for such services.
Nine: There are a number of organisations and bodies that could be easily approached in Nigeria for free legal services. Such organisations include, but are not limited to the Legal Aid Council, Faculties of Law, Nigerian Bar Association, and non-governmental organisations.
Ten: Again, do some administrative work by yourself. Little issues like processing of doctor’s reports, arranging for courier service, securing death or birth certificate, etc may not be necessarily handled by a lawyer.
Another lawyer, Onuoha Odo added that there are indeed offices and organisations that can help one to get legal services at a reduced cost or at no cost at all, depending on the kind of legal services. He gave the following tips.
A. There are private lawyers otherwise known as human rights lawyers who can render pro bono legal services.
B. There is a department in the Ministry of Justice in each state of the federation that provides free legal services, especially to indigent clients.
C. You can equally approach human rights bodies such as Women’s Aid Collective (WACOL), The Legal Defence and Assistance Project (LEDAP), Federation of International Women Lawyers (FIDA) and what have you.
D. Another body you can approach for for free legal services is the Multi-Door Court.
E. Finally, you can also approach Citizens Mediation Centre.
In her contribution, Agatha Mcmadu, Esq, Principal Consultant, Agatha Legal Law Firm referred to Cambridge Dictionary definition of legal services as, work done by a lawyer for a client. That means that any work done by a legal practitioner for a client is deemed to be a legal service. She stated that legal service means any service that may only be provided by a person licensed, admitted or otherwise qualified to practice law in the jurisdiction in which the service is provided.
“If the same service is to be provided in Canada by a person who is not a lawyer, such a service is not a legal service for the purposes of this rule,” she stated.
Agatha equally gave examples of legal services, and added that for the purpose of this topic, citizens must first be made to understand the benefits, value, advantage and importance of legal services. If not, they will not be interested in accessing the legal service even if it is free.
She painted a good scenario of free legal service as when the Federal Government of Nigeria sometime in October 2020, made available free 250,000 business names registration for MSMEs called Business Formalisation Support of the MSME Survival Fund as part of the Federal Government’s Post-COVID-19 pandemic survival intervention to support micro and small businesses to formalise their business. She described it as a rare opportunity that many start-ups, entrepreneurs, artisans, craftsmen/women did not take advantage of because of lack of knowledge on the benefits of business formalisation.
She then enumerated many law firms and government institutions that render free and affordable legal services. These, in her words, include:
One: Lagos State Ministry of Justice. She noted that the ministry offers a variety of free legal services to citizens.
Two: The Legal Aid Council of Nigeria also has the mandate to provide free legal assistance and representations, legal advice and Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR), to indigent Nigerians in conflict with the law as to enhance access to Justine in Nigeria.
Three: Moreover, some private lawyers and law firms offer “Pro Bono”. In legal terms Pro Bono is known as providing free legal services. Lawyers who offer Pro Bono consider the fact that the client cannot afford to pay for the legal help rendered.
“Agatha Legal Law Firm helps start-ups, businesses, organisations with free legal advisory services on wide range of issues including and not limited to statutory compliance, protection of legal rights, tangible and intangible property. However their charges for paper works and applications are very affordable”, she added.
A practising lawyer in Lagos, Evans Ufeli, started with saying that legal services are not cheap. However, people live in a society where a lot of persons cannot afford to pay legal fees for certain reasons, including the poor economy. “So many people are poor and they cannot really afford to pay legal fees,” he said. He therefore provided ways through which this legal services can be accessed.
A. There are government-owned establishments where lawyers work and the essence of their employment is to provide free legal services to the public. For Lagos State, we have the Office of the Public Defender (OPD). Their duty is to assist indigent citizens, provide legal service for them because it is believed they cannot accept such legal service from private lawyers.
B. There is also what they call the Legal Aid, which is run by the Federal Government, and they have their headquarters in Abuja, and offices across the 36 states in Nigeria. Their duty also is to assist indigent citizens to get legal services that they naturally cannot pay for. Now, that is the government angle from both the state and federal governments.
C. They can access cheap legal fees from NGOs that provide legal services for indigent citizens. There is one called Cadrell Advocacy Centre, that provides free legal services for women and children only.
D. There are other NGOs that also provide legal services for the public. So it’s for the citizen involved to find and make enquires to go online, check or ask questions. Go to the High Court, Magistrate Court, Court of Appeal and ask questions.
E. You can also access free legal fees if you have a friend or relative that is a lawyer whom you can confide in. You can explain to him/her that you can’t pay legal service, and ask if he could step in and do the case.
F. .A lot of lawyers do cases Pro Bno. Private lawyers do cases Pro Bono. In fact one of the requirements for attaining the position of the Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) is that you must have done Pro Bono to a certain level.
So the citizen should do diligence and make serious enquires as to how legal services can be accessed either free or cheap, Ufeli said.