Comment on the Enactment of the Act Partially Amending the Comprehensive Legal Support Act Concerning the Establishment of the Attorney Assistance System for Crime Victims and Bereaved Families
On April 18, 2024, the Act Partially Amending the Comprehensive Legal Support Act (the “Act”) was enacted. The Act concerns the establishment of the attorney assistance system for crime victims and bereaved families in which attorneys will support families who lost their loved ones due to crime, including those involving murder or dangerous driving causing death, or sexual crime victims, in a comprehensive manner from an early stage.
The Japan Federation of Bar Associations (the “JFBA”) operates a legal support system for crime victims, using membership dues from members to fund the system, in which the JFBA provides legal support to crime victims, including recent victims, and bereaved families. In the meantime, the JFBA has actively encouraged the government to introduce a publicly-funded attorney assistance system for crime victims, through actions such as publishing statements including the “Provisional Legislative Proposal for the Realization of Government-Funded Legal Aid for Victims of Crime” dated March 15, 2012, the “Resolution Aiming at Securing Equal Access to Comprehensive Support for Crime Victims” adopted at the 60th JFBA Convention on the Protection of Human Rights in 2017, and the “Opinion Calling for the Establishment of a Publicly-Funded Attorney Assistance System for Crime Victims” dated November 22, 2019.
The JFBA highly values the enactment of the Act, thereby establishing a system that many crime victims and bereaved families has been requesting for a long time.
The government will deliberate on matters affecting the new system, which is to be implemented no later than 2026, such as which crimes to be covered under the system, and the eligibility for and any costs to be charged to the system’s users. It is desirable that the system will be designed, through further deliberation within the government, in a way that will ensure that crime victims and bereaved families will not hesitate to use the new system due to costs that they have to bear, or for any other reasons, as stated in a supplementary resolution for the bill which was adopted when the Act was enacted.
Furthermore, the supplementary resolution states that further consideration is to be given regarding which crimes are to be covered under the system, the conditions regarding the financial resources of the users thereof, and the detail of the support to be provided under the system, based on domestic and international developments concerning measures to support crime victims and bereaved families, while taking into consideration the state of the implementation of the Act after its enforcement. In this view, such further consideration should continue toward further enhancement even after its implementation.
The JFBA will work on fostering and securing attorneys who will engage with crime victims and bereaved families under the new system so such people, wherever they are in Japan, will be able to receive proper legal support, while also closely coordinating with relevant organizations to further enhance the new system.
April 25, 2024
Reiko Fuchigami
President of the Japan Federation of Bar Associations
