I refer to the report of the 15-year-old being jailed by the Seremban Magistrate's Court for three months for killing livestock, together with the unrelated coverage of suggestions of compulsory community service for new lawyers proposed by the Attorney-General Abdul Gani Patail. I have some responses to these.

The government should upgrade its legal aid services to include criminal legal aid in selected cases especially in relation to juveniles. This would complement whatever legal aid services the Bar currently runs.

The Attorney-General's Chambers and the government legal aid scheme may want to explore the creation of a child's advocate to be placed with the AG or with the government legal aid scheme. Child advocates are lawyers and defenders of rights of the child. They are not prosecutors.

Not all states have an effective Bar legal aid scheme like the one based in Kuala Lumpur. Even the Selangor state Bar sends cases to KL. I have been to the Selangor state Bar office where I overheard staff informing legal aid seekers to go to the legal aid centre in KL.

It is almost too late to get law graduates to work with communities when they hit practice. Law schools should actually infuse community work in the curricula. As the Bar has a hand in overseeing local law school curricula, perhaps the Bar and law schools should develop this in the near future. It is advisable that law school should not merely target at the 'professionalism' of lawyers.

And something must be done with the skills of magistrates in dispensing with their cases. As they are under the Legal Service Commission, I suggest that some senior Sessions judge be made to monitor complaints.

One needs only to spend one morning in any Magistrate's Court anywhere to come away with horror at the manner in which some of these magistrates dispense with justice. In criminal cases, they appear overwhelmed by police and prosecutors instead of listening to both parties.