Legal assistance cases on the rise, help for poor people

BEIJING - China handled 1.45 million legal aid cases last year, up 11.1 percent year on year, offering help to about 1.52 million people.

In the meantime, legal consultation benefited 8.75 million people, according to a document issued at a national meeting Thursday, which was attended by chiefs of local justice departments nationwide.

The document said the duty-lawyer system had been improved with more than 5,900 legal aid stations being set up to cover all criminal detention centers and courts in the country.

The Ministry of Justice also initiated a poverty-reduction themed volunteer program to provide legal assistance services in less-developed areas of the country's central and western regions.

Justice Minister Fu Zhenghua said at the meeting that the ministry would make concrete efforts to improve legal services to make sure that the people had a stronger sense of fulfillment, happiness, and security.