Although access to the Justice is a fundamental right and an essential public service in Colombia, many people cannot access it, among other reasons, due to the lack of a attorney that represents them, because they do not have how pay it.
Faced with this, there are options such as Ombudsman’s Office and the legal offices of the universities, which support other cases, but many times the offer of the State and the academic or private sector is insufficient to attend to all. For this reason, since 2009 there is also a foundation that supports low-income people by providing them with a lawyer for their cases free of charge.
It is the ProBono Colombia Foundation, which works with lawyers, law firms and law firms to take cases and give their lawyer service at no cost to people who need it. Ana María Arboleda, director of the foundation, explained in an interview how the entity works, and how people and lawyers can access these services.
How did ProBono Colombia start?
There are obstacles that prevent people from bringing their conflicts to formal justice on equal terms. The lack of economic resources, geographical location, the consequences of a conflict and ignorance of rights are the obstacles that stand out the most and deserve the most attention in the country.
In response to the above, some Colombian law firms implemented practices similar to the US pro bono work model, where occasionally, their lawyers met the needs of people with limited economic resources and social organizations for free. However, this practice was not institutionalized.
In 2009 the ProBono Colombia Foundation was created, a non-profit organization aimed at institutionalizing pro bono work as a corporate social responsibility project in law firms and legal groups of companies, with the aim of involving the legal community Colombia in creating an infrastructure to serve the most vulnerable and underserved populations.
The foundation of pro bono work is professional social responsibility, through which lawyers can use their specialized knowledge to guarantee access to justice not only for those who can pay their fees, but also in favor of the public interest and the people. and most vulnerable communities.
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Ana María Arboleda, director of the ProBono Colombia Foundation.
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ProBono Colombia Foundation
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How many collaborators do you currently have and who are they?
In 2009, the Foundation had 15 affiliated law firms willing to provide their services free of charge, and 21 pro bono cases were advised. After 11 years of practice, we currently have almost 50 law firms and business legal groups linked to the ProBono Colombia Foundation and signatories of the Pro Bono Declaration for the Americas, forming a network of more than 1,700 lawyers willing to work voluntarily and free for people and communities without economic resources. In this network there are lawyers specialized in all branches of law.
It has been essential to make alliances with the academy, so that lawyers in training have an approach to social responsibility. In this context, we have had the opportunity to work with 300 law students from different universities, who have had the opportunity to do their legal practices at the Foundation or at affiliated firms and companies.
In the first years the Foundation developed its work mainly in Bogotá, as of 2017 we began to work on linking lawyers in Medellín and Cali and with our #ProBonoSaledelaOficina initiative, we have been expanding our presence throughout the Colombian territory. We have carried out nearly 700 projects in more than 40 municipalities in Colombia.
Lawyers can use their specialized knowledge to guarantee access to justice not only for those who can pay their fees.
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(Also read: Can’t afford a lawyer? This was said by the Court about poverty protection)
How do cases that need a lawyer but cannot pay for it come to you?
Through a web platform, the Foundation receives requests from natural and legal persons who wish to be advised by a lawyer, but who do not have sufficient financial resources to cover their fees. The Foundation is in charge of verifying that these people do not have resources, that they have a condition of vulnerability and that their needs are legal, to refer these cases to the network of volunteer lawyers willing to take these cases and advise them.
The first innovative element of pro bono work is the possibility of accessing free legal advice through a web system for receiving cases. The ease offered by the internet, allows people who do not have the possibility of moving, to request the help of a high quality professional through digital means. This system also allows attorneys to track the progress of the case.
Pro bono clients come to the Foundation by word of mouth, but most of them do so through civil society organizations with which we have alliances.
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How do you decide which cases to seek a free defense attorney?
One of the characteristics of pro bono work is voluntariness: the Foundation is in charge of receiving cases from clients, conducting interviews, filtering them and then referring them to volunteer lawyers, so that they are the ones who decide which matters they want to attend to. . In this way, to the extent that the aforementioned profile is met, and whenever it is a legal need, the Foundation refers the matters to the network of lawyers but there is no prioritization.
In most cases, effective access to justice requires professional assistance, even when the law does not require the legal representation of a lawyer, since knowledge itself of the mechanisms to satisfy legal needs is specialized knowledge.
Furthermore, socioeconomic inequalities prevent people without financial resources from using the tools offered by the legal system to satisfy their basic needs, such as entering into a contract or defending their human rights.
In this sense, pro bono work allows these people to have advice for all kinds of needs, even those that are not covered by the offer of free advice offered by the State.
Through this practice, pro bono clients can turn to all kinds of legal advice that they would not otherwise be able to obtain, for example, contractual, housing, family, civil, commercial, criminal, labor, tax and even corporate.
Socio-economic inequalities prevent people without economic resources from using the tools offered by the legal system to satisfy their basic needs.
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How many cases have they been able to advise?
From October 2009 to December 31, 2020, we have been able to handle a total of 3,937 cases of unsatisfied legal needs through affiliated lawyers that have managed to find a way to access justice.
How is ProBono financed as an organization in order to continue bringing lawyers and people who need them closer together?
The Foundation has a system of linking law firms and business legal groups, through which services are offered for the structuring of a corporate social responsibility program within the organization, whose pillar is the service to pro bono clients and the development and implementation of a pro bono work policy.
As part of this link, the companies and firms that join, sign the Pro Bono Declaration for the American Continent, and make an annual donation to be able to access the services of dissemination of the pro bono culture, advice on corporate social responsibility, and access to the pro bono case platform.
Likewise, the Foundation carries out some fundraising events in which the pro bono culture is also promoted and legal community is created, such as the annual soccer five cup and a concert called Rock & Law where bands perform. formed by our affiliates. We can gladly assure that the event has positioned itself as the meeting point of the legal community, allowing that in the last face-to-face version in 2019 we had 13 bands and more than a thousand attendees.
How people and lawyers can access ProBono Colombia
The people of low economic resourses Those who need a lawyer and want to contact the ProBono Colombia foundation can find all the information on the website https://probono.org.co/solicita-un-abogado/
There they must fill out a form and in five business days one of the Foundation’s lawyers will call them to understand what the case consists of and check if they comply with the pro bono client profile.
On the other hand, if you are a attorney or company of the legal area and want to be part of the foundation, to advise cases for free, you can find the information at https://probono.org.co/actores-probono/profesionales-del-derecho/
[email protected]
On Twitter: @JusticiaET
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