Development Model of Effective Public Defenders of the Lawyers Council of Thailand

Abstract

The research on Development Model of Effective Public Defenders of the Lawyers Council of Thailand aimed to study the operation of public defenders of the Lawyers Council of Thailand to obtain a development model of effective public defenders of the Lawyers Council of Thailand. The research methodology was mixed methods which were consisted of both qualitative and quantitative methods. The qualitative methods was an in-depth-interview with key informants including five groups in totally 31 persons which were 10 public defenders, 2 administrative of Lawyers Council of Thailand which were the vice president and head of Legal Aid department, 4 operators of justice administration process which were a police, prosecutor, judge and corrections officer, 5 experts of law and of justice administration process and 10 people in Lawyers Council of Thailand services. There was also the focus group of experts and public defenders to confirm the findings. For the quantitative method, there was a structured questionnaire as the tool for collecting data. The sample was divided into 2 groups which were 136 public defenders in Bangkok Metropolitan and the 368 people in the Lawyers Council of Thailand The totally number of quantitative method were 504 people. The statistical methods used to analyze data were frequency, percentage, mean and standard of deviation.From the synthesis of qualitative and quantitative methodology to provide the development model of effective public defenders of the Lawyers Council of Thailand, the researcher presented   the model of “Super Public Defender” feature which were as following:

1) Service referred to services of public defenders offering to the suspect or defendant in legal assistance without charge, the public defender in criminal, civil and administrative special case, the public defender in the investigation in the juvenile delinquency, the public defender in the various areas, and the public defender for the court and for the prison to counsel inmates and their relatives.

2)System referred to the system of profile registration of public defenders with specific expertise, database of public defenders of various departments in the same system, the policy of the Legal Aid Fund, the coupon cost of litigation to the low income, the clear regulation on the requisition compensation of public defender and the cooperation of relevant authorities for the effective public defenders.

3) Social welfare benefits referred to social welfare benefits of public defenders to receive appropriate compensation and benefits as well as helping the individual in society especially the disadvantaged  persons to achieve a satisfactory standard on the basis of equality which was the most important factor leading to social justice and efficiency. The social welfare benefits also were such as performing such a rescue fund expenses of litigation or legal proceedings for those who had low incomes, the legal assistance to low income people to get bail without charge, the legal assistance for the people in accordance with the Universal Declaration and the protection right of the people as a member of society according to constitution.

4) Seminar referred to training seminars to create a network of legal and judicial cooperation, the moral training for public defenders, the knowledge of professional ethics lawyer, the voluntary  work for the people, the training  for specific legislation such as business law and  copyright law, the skill of English language training to support the ASEAN Community, the preparation of the legal and academic journals to public defender with knowledge of legal circumstances and  the partnerships with local governments to train people with knowledge of the law.