Chinese lawyers becoming the main force in China's legal aid

At 10:00 a.m. on March 9, China's Ministry of Justice held a press conference on legal aid, and vice minister Xiong Xuanguo gave a brief introduction on China's legal aid work. Shanghai Nuo Di Law Firm (www.shndlaw.com) notes that Chinese lawyers are already taking the social responsibility of legal aid.It is mainly reflected in the following aspects.

First of all, the Chinese government has set up legal aid duty lawyer system. All courts, jails in the country have established legal aid workstations with duty lawyers to provide legal aid for criminal suspects and defendants. It finally makes it more timely and effectively to protect the litigation rights of criminal suspects and defendants.

Secondly, the Chinese government actively promote legal aid in criminal cases. There are Beijing, Shanghai, zhejiang and other five provinces (municipalities) to carry out the pilot.  It applies to the first and second instance of cases which follow the ordinary procedure as well as retrial which follows the supervision procedure. When the defendant does not entrust persons as his defenders, legal aid institutions will assign defense lawyers. It further expands the scope of criminal legal aid and significantly increases the defense rate for criminal cases.

In 2017, Chinese lawyers had handled more than 290,000 cases of criminal legal aid, up 16% from the same period last year. In particular, the growth of the eight pilot provinces was obvious, with Shanghai growing 71.8% year-on-year, 62.1% in Beijing and 42.3% in Henan.

Thirdly, it is to give full play to the legal aid lawyers in the work of legal aid cases, and works out policies and measures to support and encourage lawyers in the legal aid work. It regulates professional behavior and greatly arouses the enthusiasm of more than 360,000 Chinese lawyers to participate in legal aid work. In 2017, Chinese lawyers had handled more than 570,000 legal aid cases, with an increase of 11.4% over the same period in 2016.

In addition, the Chinese government has actively promoted lawyers to participate in cases of complaints, effectively safeguarding the legitimate rights and interests of the parties and safeguarding social fairness and justice.

Research Center of Shanghai Nuo Di Law Firm

April, 2018