In a letter sent on Monday to Justice Minister Ana Lovrin, the Human Rights Ombudsman warned about serious breaches of citizens' rights in light of the fact that legislation envisaging free legal aid does not guarantee the right of access to justice for all citizens regardless of their financial or social status.
Malcic believes that the existing regulations make it much more difficult for the most vulnerable categories to exercise their constitutional right of access to justice and even their right to be equal before the law.
"There are numerous cases when citizens cannot exercise their rights or lose their rights or property only because legal aid is unavailable. Some individuals take advantage of such situations, often with the help of public officials in the administration and the judiciary," Malcic said.
He urged the adoption of a law on free legal aid in order to ensure the necessary funds already in the 2007 budget, and called on the Justice Ministry to send the relevant bill to parliament.
Malcic believes that access to justice is also obstructed by the provisions of the Law on Legal Practice, which he said had resulted in excessive prices of legal services and lack of competition among lawyers, affecting the quality of their services.
He urged the Justice Ministry to prepare without delay a bill on legal practice in order to adjust the prices of legal services to one of the two basic European models - the free negotiating of the reward between the lawyer and the client and the setting of a fixed tariff for legal services.
Malcic believes that the bill should envisage efficient legal means for the protection of the public against lawyers whose work is unconscientious and poor, as there is ample evidence of incompetent and unconscientious work that has never been punished.