Volunteer lawyers helping the poor

Program in 174 counties handled 10,000 cases last year, a year-on-year increase of 20 percent

Before Zhu Rui became a volunteer lawyer in Yining, Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, in 2013, the small city in Northwest China had no licensed legal services.

Yining is not an isolated case. The vast central and western areas of China face a dire shortage of legal resources, according to the Ministry of Justice.