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Latest News and Events
Report on dialogue session with PLHIV
18 February 2011 - posted by Web Administrator
In conjunction with Law Awareness Week form 9 October –16 October 2010, our Posters and Articles Committee was asked to cover various activities held by the Kuala Lumpur Legal Aid Centre (LAC). The first activity was a Dialogue session with people living with HIV positive.
It was held on a late Saturday morning. I made my way to the centre having been informed by Chitrah , the legal aid centre coordinator for this activity that the centre is located next to the Sony Building and it is near Tune Hotel. I took the monorail and alighted from Chow Kit monorail station and walked for 10 minutes till I reached Tune Hotel. I turned left at Tune Hotel and found Sony Building, only to be further lost.
Safe Clinic Article
18 February 2011 - posted by Web Administrator
As part of Law Awareness Week 2010, the Bar Council Legal Aid Centre (Kuala Lumpur) conducted an outreach clinic on the 16 October. As a volunteer, I was invited by a member of Legal Aid Centre to tag along to this clinic. Ironically, the venue for this Legal Awareness clinic was a medical clinic at Jalan Thamby Abdullah, Brickfields. The name of the clinic; “The Safe Clinic”.
If you haven’t heard of this clinic maybe it’s because it was just set up in July 2010. But what makes this clinic special is that it is a non-profit clinic specializing in sexual health.
You don’t hear much about sexual health clinics in Malaysia. In fact, I rarely hear about sexual health at all, unless there are couples dumping new-born babies. Even with that, sexual health is still a ‘hush-hush’ topic within the general public in Malaysia with zero reference to sexual health clinics. Regardless, sexual health is a real issue effecting real people, and the volunteers at The Safe Clinic intend to do something about it.
Legal Awareness Week - Report on Sex Workers Dialogue in Collaboration with Pink Triangle and KL Legal Aid Centre
18 February 2011 - posted by Web Administrator
To be honest, I had little idea what to expect when I was told I was to turn up and report at a Dialogue for Sex workers at the SW centre in Chow Kit. Little did I know, I was to see and hear for myself about a misunderstood community of women who were just trying to get by. A community which has been dubbed “The oldest profession in the world’’ yet, ask yourselves, do you think they ply their trade out of choice? Or out of necessity?
Legal fees hike driven by market forces, says Bar Council
18 February 2011 - posted by Web Administrator
By Yow Hong Chieh
February 17, 2011
KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 17 — Market forces will push up legal fees due to increased responsibilities caused by a more efficient court system rather than arbitrary changes in fees by the Bar Council, its president Ragunath Kesavan said today.
But he said the lawyers could mitigate it by increasing legal aid work for those unable to afford rising fees.
He said court cases could no longer be postponed as easily as before, now that they must be settled within three to six months instead of two years previously.
“Everybody wants efficiency... but it comes with a price, and this is the price. You have to pay. You can’t expect lawyers to absorb the cost anymore. They run a commercial business.”
Legal Aid lawyers and volunteers denied right to educate community
18 February 2011 - posted by Web Administrator
Contributed by Stephanie Bastian, Executive Director, Bar Council Legal Aid Centre (KL) (LAC KL), with photos by Nurul Najwa Hashim, LAC KL volunteer
The much-anticipated launch of National Law Awareness Week 2010 was marred by an unfortunate incident, during which volunteers of the Bar Council Legal Aid Centre (Kuala Lumpur) ("LAC KL") were detained by the police on Sunday, 10 Oct 2010.
The Centre's outreach project, called "Lawyers Approaching Community" ("LAC") and helmed by the Dock Brief Committee, was initiated in conjunction with the National Law Awareness Week, scheduled to take place from 11-17 Oct 2010. The LAC project was aimed at educating the public on their legal rights through wide distribution of the Bar Council's pamphlets entitled "Police and Your Basic Rights" pamphlets, popularly known as the "Redbook pamphlets", and specially printed red "Legal Aid Centre" balloons.
On the Sunday in question, 16 volunteer lawyers and pupils in chambers eagerly supported the Centre's initiative by distributing the Redbook pamphlets and red balloons to the public at four locations, namely, Bukit Bintang, Sogo area, Masjid Jamek and Bukit Jalil. Among the volunteers were Jason Kong Teng Mun, Chan Khoon Moh and two pupils in chambers, who
were assigned to cover the Bukit Jalil area.