Daily Serving of Legal Matters

Image taken from www.illustrationsof.com I was appointed as counsel de oficio to represent an accused who was imprisoned since March 2014. Counsel de oficio is the attorney appointed by the court to an indigent criminal defendant  ( http://definitions.uslegal.com/c/counsel-de-officio/ ).  His case is still on its arraignment stage.      Arraignment is when the information or the complaint is read in the language or dialect known to the accused and then he would be asked whether he pleads guilty or not guilty. Image taken from www.dreamstime.com When I browsed the record of the case, the penalty that would be imposed is only prision mayor or imprisonment of 30 days and 1 day to 6 months.  So, the accused has already served the maximum penalty should he may be found guilty to the crime charged. In fact, his imprisonment is already beyond what is required by law. As stated section 16 of Rule 114 of Revised Rules of Criminal Procedure,...

It is of common knowledge that once a case is filed in court, especially criminal case, against a person, he must be represented with a counsel or a lawyer. To be represented with a counsel is one of the fundamental rights of the accused. There are two types of counsels representing an accused in court.  These are counsel de parte and counsel de oficio. Counsel de parte is the counsel of choice of the accused engaged by him to represent him in court.  It is in line with his constitutional right to have a competent and independent counsel preferably of his own choice. Most often than not, this counsel de parte is a private practitioner and his legal services are not for gratis. However, if the accused cannot afford the services of a counsel, he must be provided with one. This counsel provided by court to defend the accused is known as counsel de oficio. As provided in the Revised Rules of Court of the Philippines, it is a duty of the court to inform the accused of his right to ...