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Supreme Court Approves New Rules on Mandatory Pro Bono Legal Aid Service in Administrative Matter No. 22-11-01-SC

On 20 August 2024, the Supreme Court approved Administrative Matter No. 22-11-01-SC or the Rules on Unified Legal Aid Service (“ULAS Rules”). The ULAS Rules is a set of rules governing the rendition of mandatory and incentivized legal aid service in favor of indigents by Covered Lawyers every three (3) years (“Compliance Period”), which coincides with the Mandatory Continuing Legal Education (“MCLE”) compliance period. 

Under the ULAS Rules, all Covered Lawyers are required to render a minimum of sixty (60) hours of pro bono legal aid service to Qualified Beneficiaries, as defined in the rules, for every Compliance Period. Any act that involves the application of law, legal procedure, or legal knowledge, training and experience, which legal services are provided free of charge, and rendered to Qualified Beneficiaries would be counted as Pro Bono Legal Aid Service. The following are also considered Pro Bono Legal Aid Service: 

  1. Representation in the courts in civil and criminal cases and quasi-judicial bodies in administrative cases;
  2. Legal counseling, rendering assistance in contract negotiations and drafting of legal documents, including memoranda of law, affidavits, and contracts. Drafting may include policy work involving legal research and advocacy; 
  3. Developmental legal assistance consisting of rights awareness, capacity-building, and training in basic human rights, documentation, and affidavit-making; 
  4. Participation in Accredited Legal Outreach Programs and Missions, including the mentorship of students under Rule 138-A of the Law Student Practice Rule; and 
  5. Such other legal services as may be defined by the Supreme Court.

The ULAS Rules give certain organizations an option to aggregate the number of hours of all Covered Lawyers in their organization (“Registered Organizations”). This includes those: (a) employed by the Registered Organization under an employer-employee relationship, (b) who serve as directors, trustees, partners (in a partnership), officers, or (c) other persons reasonably and professionally connected to the Registered Organization. Notwithstanding the option to aggregate, all Covered Lawyers must individually and personally render Pro Bono Legal Aid Services covering at least 25% of his or her required minimum hours. To be considered a Registered Organization, the organization must file a written declaration of such intent to aggregate with the ULAS Board before the start of the relevant Compliance Period.

The ULAS Rules also give Covered Lawyers the option to give a financial contribution to the ULAS Fund, based on the rates to be fixed under the ULAS Rules Manual, which may cover only up to a maximum of 50% of the minimum hours or aggregated minimum hours. However, if the lawyer is a Philippine lawyer based abroad (as defined in the ULAS Rules), he or she may opt to make a contribution to the ULAS Fund to cover 100% of the minimum hours. 

The following lawyers are excluded from the application of the ULAS Rules: 

  1. Lawyers in government service and incumbent elective officials who are absolutely prohibited from practicing law outside their public employment; 
  2. Lawyers of the Public Attorneys Office;
  3. Lawyers who are also members of the Philippine Bar and serving as Shari’ah conselors-at-law under the Shari’ah Public Assistance Office;
  4. Lawyers whose request for authority to render Pro Bono Legal Aid Services from their government agency is denied by the duly-authorized officer of the agency;
  5. Lawyers who have been in the practice of law for at least 35 years, or who are at least 60 years of age, reckoned from the last year of the relevant Compliance Period;
  6. Lawyers who suffer from physical disabilities or attributes, mental, or other circumstances not attributable to their negligence or bad faith, which render compliance with the ULAS Rules unreasonably difficult or impossible; and
  7. New lawyers who are admitted to the Bar after the effectivity of the ULAS Rules, for the Compliance Period at the time of their admission.

The ULAS Rules define a Qualified Beneficiary as:

  • a person to whom a counsel de officio was appointed by any court, tribunal, or other government agency, with respect to the counsel de officio so appointed and the case in which the appointment was made; or
  • any person who is determined by the Covered Lawyer or Registered Organization to be (i) an indigent party or litigant as defined by Rule 3, Section 21 or Rule 141, Section 19 of the Rules of Court; or (ii) a person, including Overseas Filipino Workers or migrant workers, not covered by the preceding paragraph but nevertheless has no sufficient means to afford adequate legal services. 

A person who claims to be a Qualified Beneficiary must execute an affidavit laying down the circumstances that make him or her a Qualified Beneficiary. The Covered Lawyers have discretion to determine whether there is reasonable cause to believe that the person is a Qualified Beneficiary. If deemed qualified, the Covered Lawyer will issue a Certification under oath to that effect.