THE cost of accessing justice has shot through the roof,
pushing the service out of reach for the majority of the country’s impoverished
populace after the Law Society of Zimbabwe (LSZ) approved sharp tariff
increases in line with the depreciated real time gross settlement (RTGS)
dollar, now regarded as the official base currency.
Fees for an uncontested divorce cases shot from $1 500 to
$3 600, reflecting a more than 100% increase, a figure beyond the reach for
many Zimbabweans currently earning salaries below $500 a month.
Law lecturer and human rights defender Valentine Mutatu, however,
said while this appeared like a massive increase in legal fees, they remained
lower in United States dollar terms.
“You will notice that for senior lawyers, they used to
charge US$300 (per hour) and the latest tariff shows they can now charge RTGS$1
200. If you change that at the prevailing black market rate of today, which is
around $420 for a US$$100 bill, it’s slightly lower than what we used to
charge,” he said.
Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) said it
acknowledged that the new tariffs segregated the marginalised from accessing
justice.
“We are aware of that bridge, that is why as ZLHR we
conduct legal clinics, where we bring lawyers to the marginalised and services
are offered for free. We will continue to do this in an effort to bridge the
gap,” ZLHR said.
LSZ, in its statement adjusting the legal fees, said
lawyers were obliged to charge in line with the tariffs.
“Legal practitioners are professionally and legally obliged
to charge fees for legal work which are fair and reasonable in all
circumstances,” the notice read.
“In order to assist the profession and the public in this
regard and to seek a degree of uniformity and consistency, this tariff is
recommended by the LSZ.” Newsday
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