Community program aims to provide faster, better-quality legal services

Information exchange

Hao Nongrong, a lawyer with the project who works for the Beijing Hongjian Renhe Law Firm, said she has benefited from providing lectures and answering residents' questions.

"Explaining the law to people and helping to solve their community disputes gives me great opportunities to better understand their exact legal requirements and unearth new legal problems that urgently need to be studied," she said.

"The exchange of that sort of information is more important than how much money I can earn by offering legal services."

Ren said: "Some disputes in communities can appear trivial, when in reality they are complicated. My professional qualifications will be improved if I can solve those problems more effectively."

To ensure more disputes can be resolved quickly, the firm has opened a phone hotline that can handle more than 40 calls a day. It follows on from a smartphone app that began operating earlier this year, which was designed by the firm to help residents find and appoint lawyers.

"The app and hotline aim to make it more convenient for people to access our legal services, and also allow us to identify new problems in legal practice," Ren said.

Concerns and Challenges

Zheng said that although a number of lawyers have shown a willingness to become community counsels and provide free legal services, "setting up a fund to support their efforts will be crucial to making the project sustainable".

Hu, the judge from Haidian District People's Court, said more research will be required to decide which lawyers should be selected to act as counsels, and the selection procedure will need to be refined.

At present there are no clear rules about who should play a role in the selection procedure, so Zheng's department and Ren's firm jointly assess the qualifications of attorneys involved in the project.

"That may affect the quality of legal services being offered and may not be entirely effective in resolving people's disputes," Hu said.

Guo Wencheng, Hu's colleague, suggested a third party should supervise the attorneys' work.

"Appointing community counsels or family attorneys is a good move toward building the rule of law, but it will be essential to strictly evaluate them and review their work," she said.