The high legal fees being demanded by lawyers have led to many persons being denied proper legal representation resulting in congestion in prisons, Prisons Care and Counselling Association (PRISCCA) executive director, Godfrey Malembeka has said. In an interview, Mr. Malembeka said that legal fees in Zambia were too high for the common man and needed to be reduced if the ordinary citizens will be accorded access to legal representation. He said that most of the people who come in conflict with the law were between 18 and 35 years of age who constitute most of the unemployed youths and that it was because of this that many were ending up in prison even for cases that they would be handed a non-custodial sentence. Mr Malembeka said that the congestion in the prisons can be avoided if the legal fees were lowered so as to increase access to legal representation.He therefore urged law firms and lawyers to consider lowering legal fees and that this would go a long way in reducing congestion in prisons. He observed that the high legal fees have led to many cases dragging for years and many going to prison for petty crimes that would otherwise not demand a custodial sentence. Mr Malembeka also challenged the Law Association of Zambia (LAZ) to come up with a deliberate policy to compel lawyers to offer pro bono legal services. He said that the association can come up with a legal framework that compels lawyers to at least provide a free legal representation of a citizen in court. Mr Malembeka said that despite the expectation that lawyers will provide pro bono legal services it has been technically discarded. He said that the provision of free legal services to society must be part of the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) of lawyers. He further appealed to the newly appointed chief justice, Mumba Malila to expedite the process of creating an office for resident judges in the remaining six provinces. He said that the current scenario where only four provinces had resident judges was not fair and must be resolved promptly.
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