Anchr developed the Salduz web application for FOD Justice

Thanks to the so-called Salduz legislation, the rights of every suspect are better protected today, both prior to and during the interrogation. A lawyer plays an important role in this. Individuals suspected of crimes that carry a custodial sentence and who have been arrested are assigned a lawyer through the Salduz permanent service if they do not have one themselves. Adult suspects can waive this right, but juvenile suspects can never do this. Contact will always be made with the Salduz permanent service for them.

It is the Orde van Vlaamse Balies that, together with Avocats.be, has established the Salduz permanence. A decision was made to develop a Salduz web application to support the legal profession and judicial services within the framework of the Salduz legislation. For the implementation of the project, the expertise of Anchr was called upon. 

Speaking is Johan Van Driessche, Director of the IT and Finance department of the Orde van Vlaamse Balies: 'Within the Salduz web application, lawyers can indicate at which times, within which areas of expertise, and geographically they are available to provide assistance during an interrogation. At those times, the lawyer can be contacted on a permanence number that the lawyer sets themselves.'

Van Driessche continues: 'Suspects can provide police officers and investigating judges with a preferred lawyer. If the relevant lawyer has registered to act for their own clients, that lawyer will be called first. If the own lawyer is unreachable, does not accept the assignment, or does not participate in Salduz, a search will be conducted within the pool of permanence lawyers. The system will always propose a random lawyer based on several criteria such as: police zone, interview language, adult-minor suspect, subject-preference criterion, main language of the suspect, other spoken language of the suspect. The lawyer receives a spoken text message on their mobile phone. After accepting the assignment, the lawyer receives an SMS and email with all practical details such as the Salduz number, contact person's phone number, etc.'

Van Driessche: 'To ensure compliance with the Salduz bis legislation, verbalists can indicate in the Salduz web application which lawyer accompanies the legal seeker or search for a permanence lawyer. When creating a file, they can indicate whether the adult suspect waives the assistance of a lawyer or retracts a waiver. They can also indicate whether an interrogation is audio recorded, after consulting with or at the recommendation of the lawyer.

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