The Supreme Court En Banc has approved The Rules on Unified Legal Aid Service (ULAS Rules) which mandates covered lawyers to render at least 60 hours of pro bono legal aid every three years in favor of indigent Filipinos, as defined in the ULAS Rules.
The ULAS Rules is a product of extensive deliberations and studies made over the course of more than a year by the ULAS Rules Technical Working Group (TWG). In drafting the same, the TWG solicited the invaluable inputs of the Court En Banc, as well as the ULAS Rules‘ stakeholders—its covered lawyers. Comments and feedback were gathered in the four-leg ULAS Regional Consultations held last April 12 to May 31, 2024 where the TWG, the Court En Banc, and various Court employees visited major cities in the country to consult lawyers in the local regions. An online feedback form was likewise published throughout the same period so that the public, including the potential beneficiaries of the ULAS Rules, can likewise be heard. All these channels were opened to ensure that the final version of the ULAS Rules is responsive and accessible.
Under the ULAS Rules, any person who has no sufficient means to afford adequate legal services, as assessed by a covered lawyer in accordance with guidelines to be issued by the ULAS Board, may be a qualified beneficiary entitled to pro bono legal services. The legal service itself will be free for such qualified beneficiary and the necessary expenses for the rendering of the service will be borne by the Court thru the ULAS Fund, which will be set up for this purpose. Additionally, the qualified beneficiary shall be exempt from payment of docket and other fees.
Pro bono legal aid services can come in many forms, such as representation in court, legal counselling, drafting legal documents, developmental legal assistance, and participation in accredited legal outreach programs.
The ULAS Rules allows lawyers to extend financial contributions instead of performing pro bono legal aid service. Such contributions will go directly and exclusively to the ULAS Fund which, as mentioned, will be covering reasonable expenses of covered lawyers in performing pro bono legal aid services. However, the financial contribution may only cover a maximum of 50% of the minimum hours required. The ULAS Board is set to issue a schedule of rates per hour for purposes of the financial contributions.
The ULAS Rules also allows registered organizations —corporations, partnerships, associations, or any other groups of persons duly registered with the appropriate government agency, including law firms — to aggregate the required minimum hours of its lawyers for purposes of compliance. However, only 75% of each lawyer’s mandatory minimum hours can be aggregated by a registered organization. The remaining 25% — or 15 hours of the 60 hours minimum — will have to be personally satisfied by the individual lawyer.
Incentives for covered lawyers to meet the minimum mandatory hours and even exceed the same are likewise provided in the ULAS Rules. For instance, meeting the 60 hours minimum for every compliance period automatically entitles the covered lawyer to 15 credit units of the Mandatory Continuing Legal Education (MCLE). Compliant lawyers are also entitled to tax incentives under existing laws and others which may be provided in the future. Further, the ULAS Rules eases the burden of providing the legal aid by widening the scope of services that may be credited and loosening some administrative requirements for certain services such as the rule that notarial activity may only be undertaken in one’s usual place of business. Under the ULAS Rules, services rendered under the ULAS in the form of notarial acts may be done outside such area so long as it is within the jurisdiction of the granting authority. Finally, the ULAS Board is tasked to coordinate with other government agencies to provide more incentives for the rendering of pro bono legal aid services.
On the other hand, failure to meet the minimum hours carries certain consequences, such as fines, being listed as a delinquent member of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) and ineligibility to obtain a Certificate of Good Standing from the Office of the Bar Confidant. Nevertheless, all lawyers are afforded a 60-day grace period from receipt of the Noncompliance Notice to comply or otherwise explain any justification for non-compliance. Only if the covered lawyer remains to be delinquent after this grace period can penalties be imposed.
The ULAS Rules do not cover lawyers who are absolutely prohibited from engaging in private practice under the Constitution and statutes, which include those employed in the Judiciary, the Office of the Solicitor General, and government prosecutors of the Department of Justice. Also excluded are those lawyers in the Public Attorney’s Office and the Shari’ah Public Assistance Office. Lawyers who have been practicing law for at least 35 years or are 60 years of age, those who suffer from certain disabilities, and new lawyers with respect to the Compliance Period at the time of their admission to the Bar, are also not covered by the ULAS Rules. Other government lawyers are covered by the ULAS Rules, unless their request for authority to render ULAS services is denied by the agency concerned.
The Supreme Court shall appoint members to the ULAS Board which shall be primarily responsible for the implementation of the ULAS Rules. The ULAS Board shall be headed by an incumbent Supreme Court Justice with six other members: IBP National President, MCLE Governing Board Chairperson; Philippine Association of Law Schools (PALS) President; and three active law practitioners representing Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao.
Following the approval of the ULAS Rules, an ULAS Office shall be established, together with the development of the ULAS implementing guidelines or the ULAS Rules Manual.
The Technical Working Group tasked to draft the ULAS Rules is headed by Associate Justice Alfredo Benjamin S. Caguioa as Chairperson, Associate Justice Rodil V. Zalameda as Vice Chairperson, and representatives from ten (10) law firms of different sizes, the IBP, and the PALS, as members.
The first compliance period for the ULAS Rules is set to be from 2025 to 2027 and is intended to synchronize with the 9th compliance period of the MCLE to effectively facilitate the crediting of full ULAS compliance as 15 MCLE units.
The ULAS Rules takes effect on February 3, 2025, following its complete publication in the Official Gazette or in two newspapers of general circulation. (Courtesy of the Supreme Court Public Information Office)
FULL TEXT of A.M. No. 22-11-01-SC (The Rules on Unified Legal Aid Service), August 20, 2024 at: https://sc.judiciary.gov.ph/22-11-01-sc-re-the-rules-of-unified-legal-aid-service/