Tools and Criteria for Measuring Legal Aid Quality

Responding to the need for more detailed quality standards and guidelines on legal aid in the Member States of the European Union, the team of researchers and legal aid experts, led by the Law Institute of Lithuania, decided to join their efforts through a project entitled “Enhancing the Quality of Legal Aid: General Standards for Different Countries (QUAL-AID)”. QUAL-AID was developed and implemented in 2016-2018 by partners from three EU Member States: Lithuania, Germany and the Netherlands.

The project was developed in the light of the recent efforts of the international community to take steps towards improving legal aid quality and, in the EU context, taking into account the new Directive (EU) 2016/1919 on legal aid for suspects and accused persons in criminal proceedings and for requested persons in European arrest warrant proceedings. Project partners sought to contribute to enhancing the quality of legal aid services in criminal proceedings within the EU by developing practice standards for legal aid provision, enhancement of its quality and for supervision. In this regard, the project aimed at assisting Member States in proper implementation of the Directive 2016/1919.

As an additional target, the project partners sought to raise the capacity of legal aid policy makers, administrators and providers in ensuring high quality legal aid.