Cases go up 9 percent
Statistics provided by the Ministry of Justice show that national legal aid departments under local justice authorities concluded 1.24 million legal aid cases last year, and offered aid to 1.39 million people, a year-on-year increase of 9 percent. Meanwhile, the amount of legal aid funding reached 1.7 billion yuan last year, an increase of 4.8 percent compared with 2013.
As China transforms its political and economic growth model, social conflicts are rising sharply, and the interests of vulnerable groups are at stake. Zhao Dacheng, vice-minister of justice, said the ministry has been trying to improve the 20-year-old legal aid system, and one of the big moves is to lower the threshold and expand the number of people who can receive free legal aid in a bid to protect their rights.
Free legal aid will now be extended to those involved in civil disputes and criminal cases involving people's livelihoods, such as marriage and family, food safety, education and healthcare, he said.
Meanwhile, people with very low incomes and those who don't hire lawyers will also be eligible for free legal aid, he said.
The moves are in response to a key meeting hosted by President Xi Jinping in May. According to the meeting, legal aid is an important livelihood project, and the protection of people's rights and interests should be taken as the new starting and ending points.
"The purpose of improving legal aid is to expand the scope of free aid services and improve its quality so that eligible people will get legal aid and have equal access to justice," Xi said at the meeting.
In June, authorities issued a notice that listed measures for this goal, which can better protect people's legitimate rights, Zhao said.
"Now, once suspects are detained by the police, lawyers can immediately meet with them in the detention house to offer legal assistance. ... But before, once criminals were detained, the lawyers had no means to meet or get in contact with them for 48 hours," he said.
"In the past, the police also wouldn't tell the lawyers about progress in the investigation, which seriously violates suspects' legal rights. Now, once suspects are captured, lawyers will provide them free legal aid services during the whole judicial procedure, such as police interrogation, prosecution and court sentencing to protect their human rights."
In addition to expanding the number of people eligible for legal aid, another measure listed in the notice is to broaden people's access to legal aid. According to Sun Jian-ying, director of the ministry's legal aid department, 3,700 legal aid centers have been set up across the country, with more than 4,700 lawyers offering free legal aid services, including providing legal consultation, representing criminal cases and mediating civil disputes.
Now, the ministry plans to set up more legal aid working stations in local detention houses and courts.
To date, more than 1,500 legal aid working offices have been established in detention houses across the country, and the ministry will set up local legal aid working stations in the pilot courts to offer legal consultation to the parties involved in appeal cases, she said.
People who are unable to move easily, such as the elderly and the disabled, can use the hotline 12348 or the websites of local legal aid departments, she said.
Websites and hotlines have proved to be effective tools for people with demands for legal aid. According to statistics provided by the ministry, 6.8 million people applied for legal assistance last year, and most of them sought consultations through the websites or hotline.
In Jiangsu and Hubei provinces and Beijing, justice departments now regularly publicize legal aid information on their micro blogs or WeChat accounts. Designated lawyers also offer legal consulting on these social media platforms, she said.
Li Xuelian, a senior official at the ministry's legal aid department, said that among the legal aid services they handled, more than 80 percent were civil cases, with most related to payment and employment disputes, marriage and domestic affairs and traffic accidents. Others were criminal cases and administrative litigation.
The notice also highlighted the priority of accelerating legislation for the country's legal aid service.
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