About Uganda Law Council

To ensure constitutionalism, rule of law and due process are achieved, the Department of Law Council was setup with the following objectives;-

1.1 THE DEPARTMENT OF LAW COUNCIL The mandate of the department is “to act as the overall Regulatory Authority for the entire Legal Professional and Legal Aid service providers in Uganda”.

1.2 The Department of Law Council shall Conduct pre-entry examinations by August of each year.

1.3 Inspect Law Chambers and Issue a Certificate of Approval of Chamber (CAC) for chambers that conform to the required standards set by the Advocates (Inspection of Chambers) Regulations, 2005 within five (5) days after inspection.

1.4 Inspect Universities Offering Law Degree Programmes by Receive applications for accreditation of Universities or Institutions seeking to offer law degrees, check for compliance and forward to the Committee on Legal Education and Training for consideration within a period of 5 days.

1.5 Consideration of Foreign Legal Qualifications. The Department will Receive applications for accreditation of foreign legal qualifications and check for their compliance within a period of 5 days and Inform the applicant of the Committee’s decision within 10 working days from the date of the decision..

1.6 Continuing Legal Education..

(a) Receive reports on continuing legal education from the service providers and present them for consideration to the Committee within 5 days from the date of receipt;

(b) Inform the training service providers of the decision of the Committee within 7 days

(c) Issue a Notice of Compliance with Continuing Legal Education to eligible advocates within 5 days after approval of reports by the Committee.

The Uganda Law Council's Chief Objective is to ensure constitutionalism, rule of law and due process are achieved, the Department of Law Council was setup with a numerous objectives which include the following

1.6.2 Disciplinary

(a) Receive complaints and open files for the complainants upon assessment and proof of payment within 1 day;

(b) Process the complaint and notify the respective advocate or respondent within five 5 days of filing the complaint;

(c) Give the advocate or respondent 14 days within which to respond to the complaint and file a response upon payment of the requisite fees;

(d) Fix the matter for hearing within 5 days from the date of expiry of response. After the hearing a matter, the Disciplinary Committee shall give its ruling within 6 months;

(e) Extract a decree within 14 days after the ruling.

1.6.3 Legal Aid: The Department shall..

(a) Receive, process and respond to requests for any information relating to Legal Aid within 5 days;

(b) Receive applications for inspection of new legal aid service providers’ premises;

(c) Inspect all existing legal aid service providers’ premises by or before March of each year;

(d) Issue Certificates of Approval to approved legal aid service providers’ premises within 14 days after inspection;

(e) Prepare an annual comprehensive report on the inspection of legal aid service providers by the second week of December of each year;

(f) Publish in the print media a list of both approved and non - approved legal aid service providers by May of each year.

1.6.4 Pro bono Services: The Department shall

(a) Receive, process and respond to requests for any information relating to Pro Bono services within 5 days;

(b) Require every advocate to provide 40 hours free of charge legal service to an indigent person by December each year;

(c) Prepare a report on compliance with pro bono services by the third week of January of each year;

(d) Inform the advocates who have failed to comply with the provision of pro bono services by the third (3) week of January of every year

(e) Submit a copy of the pro bono service compliance report to the Chief Registrar of Courts of Judicature for appropriate management by the end of the second week of February of each year;

Government Of Uganda