By Melanie Aanyu

Each lawyer representing an accused person throughout the entire trial on state brief will be paid 1.1 million shillings.

The details are included in the Judicature Legal Representation at the Expense of the State Rules, 2022 which was launched on Wednesday by Chief Justice Alfonse Owiny-Dollo at the Judiciary headquarters in Kampala.

According to the guidelines, an advocate who represents an accused person throughout the full trial will be paid between 400,000 to 1.1 million shillings, while a lawyer who represents to the stage when the DPP withdraws charges will be paid between 200,000 to 400,000 Shillings.

Previously, there was no specific amount of money that was being paid to advocates to represent accused persons on state briefs.

But when the proposal was tabled before the lawyers under their umbrella Uganda Law Society in January 2022, it was criticized vehemently on the basis that the money is too low, something that one would think that the judiciary was to change after the consultation.