Supreme Court Issues New Regulation for Legal Aid, Easier Procedures for Poor People

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The Supreme Court Circular Letter (SEMA) No. 10/2010 on Guidelines for Provision of Legal Aid is now no longer applicable after Chief Justice, Dr. H. M. Hatta Ali, SH., MH., on 9 January 2014 issued a new regulation replacing the SEMA.

The new regulation which is called the Supreme Court Regulation (PERMA) No. 1/2014 on Guidelines for Provision of Legal Services for the Poor in Court is valid since its enactment on 16 January 2014.

“The Supreme Court and its subordinate courts must provide broadest possible access to the public to access to justice, including access to justice for the poor,” Chief Justice said in one of the PERMA’s considerations.

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Scope of legal services for the poor stipulated in the PERMA No. 1/2014 consists of court-fee waiver service, circuit court, and the provision of legal aid post in court. The scope of the legal services is not much different from that of SEMA No. 10/2010 issued on 30 August 2010.

Easier Procedures

The PERMA No. 1/2014 brought significant changes in a number of ways. For example, in terms of provision of court-fee waiver which is previously referred to as prodeo. Based on the new regulation, court-fee waiver mechanism is much simpler, giving much benefit for poor people.

People who want their cases decided by court free of charge are still required to provide SKTM or Jamkesmas or other proofs stating their poverty. But they do not have to go through court sessions and wait for the decision to find out if their applications for court-fee waiver are granted or not.

If previously based on SEMA No. 10/2010, fee waiver petition is decided through judicial process, that is now decided through administrative process only. The petition for fee waiver is submitted to court registry. Then, registrar will analyze and examine the petition. After that, the results of the registrar examination will be handed over to Chief Judge who will decide whether the fee waiver request is granted or not.

If the petition is granted, the Chief Judge will issue a letter of fee waiver service. However, if the request is rejected due to unavailability of budget for example, then the case should be processed like other ordinary cases.

(Achmad Cholil)