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BEIJING, March 10 (Xinhua) -- China has issued a document urging more lawyers to participate in legal aid to provide better service.
The document, jointly released by the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Finance, said that provincial judicial administrative authorities should assign a certain number of legal aid cases to lawyers.
It urged legal aid institutions to let more lawyers offer free consulting services to the public and ensure lawyers provide qualified service on both criminal and civil cases.
After assigning criminal cases to lawyers, legal aid institutions should make sure that lawyers perform their duties well, including meeting with clients, reading files and investigating, the document said.
Legal aid institutions should also focus more on civil cases, encouraging lawyers to provide efficient aid to poor people, according to the document.
The document also introduced innovative methods to increase lawyer participation in legal aid, such as a collaboration mechanism among judicial administrative authorities, legal aid institutions and bar associations, said Zhao Dacheng, vice minister of justice.
China began its efforts to set up a legal aid system in 1994, and the cabinet released regulations on legal aid in 2003. In May 2015, a document on improving legal aid was approved at the 12th meeting of the Central Leading Group for Deepening Overall Reform, further lowering the requirements and expanding legal aid coverage in the country.
More than five million legal aid cases have been handled and over 28 million people have received services since 2013.
