Community Safety and Mediation Center

Description

CMSC Legal Clinic is an operational program of Community Safety and Mediation Center, an independent organization, member of Soros Open Network Romania and based in the old academic city of Iasi.

Being one of the first to be implemented by the Center, the program started in 2000 and was thought as a place where students from two private Law Schools would be guided by independent lawyers in their first steps to practice on the basis of clinical cases taken for free legal representation. To this end, CMSC Legal Clinic signed partnership agreements with M.Kogălniceanu Law School and Petre Andrei Law School in Iaşi and later on with West University in Timişoara.

The program was entrusted to continue and develop in 10 different locations by the Canadian International Development Agency and the Open Society Institute from 2001 till 2003. It currently operates in Iaşi, Timişoara, Suceava, Roman, Bacău, Botoşani and Focşani in partnership with local NGO's and Law Schools. The Central Office staff includes the Director and the Project Assistant, acting as legal assistant for Iaşi and four practicing attorneys. The regional offices in Timişoara, Suceava and Focşani have each one tutor, one legal assistant and two practicing lawyers. The Central Office is the reception point for all the requests the clients make in the whole region. Cases are registered by the legal assistants in the regional offices and forwarded by the Project Assistant to the Executive Board.

In spring 2002, CMSC Legal Clinic has signed an agreement with the Romanian National Council for Refugees, a Bucharest based NGO, to support and fund additional refugee clinical activities under the umbrella of CMSC.

Clinic Activities

CMSC Legal Clinic offers free legal assistance, participates in the university education of the law students, observes the implementation of the regulations concerning criminal procedures and prepares proposals on the possible modification of the laws and regulations concerning areas of activity. As a result, the first legislative proposal was registered with the Chamber of Deputies in spring 2002.

The Legal Clinic of the Community Safety and Mediation Center numbers in its database over 360 requests for legal aid made by socially disadvantaged people. The number represents only requirements registered throughout 2001 and the beginning of 2002. Following the decisions of the Executive board of the Legal Clinic, over 150 cases were distributed to our lawyers for legal representation in courts. The majority of these cases follow the statistical structure of requests. Clients that had their cases rejected for representation by the Executive Board, benefited from our lawyers' experience with substantive legal advice so that they would be able to handle their own matters before a judge.

Students gather each day for a two hours meeting with attorneys. During this period, they study the cases, interview the clients in the presence of a lawyer, do legal research, read and discuss the court files.

In the refugee law area, the program developed legal assistance with the Bacău office and the Bucharest office via cases submitted for funding by the RNCR as the only Refugee Camp in Romania is based in Bucharest. We are expecting an increase in the number of refugees and asylum seekers that will pressure the Eastern Romanian border in the next 2 years (especially in the Romanian Moldova region that numbers around 8 million inhabitants). The process will eventually speed up the process of establishing a refugee camp in Eastern Romania. The measures, expected to be introduced by the end of 2002, will find CMSC Legal Clinic ready to absorb all legal needs of refugees in the region.

Contact information

Moara de Foc 35, Et. 7
IASI - 6600
ROMANIA

Tel: + 4 0232 252 920.
Fax: + 4 0232 252 926

Ms. Laura Curcudel, Director of Legal Clinic:
claura@cmsc.ro

Mr. Cristian Gânj, Project Assistant:
cganj@cmsc.ro

Internet URL:
http://www.cmsc.ro