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MR MURRAY'S VISIT TO HONG KONG:
DISCUSSIONS WITH THE CHIEF
SECRETARY/ATTORNEY-GENERAL ON 24 SEPTEMBER
THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE
1. The present Attorney-General, Mr J C Griffiths QC, who was appointed in June, is unusual in having been brought in from outside the colonial legal service which has supplied most of his recent predecessors (he was a barrister in private practice in England before his appointment). It would be interesting to hear his impressions of the Hong Kong legal system after three
months in office.
2. We are aware of the following points that have given recent
cause for concern:
(a) Delays in bringing cases to court
There is now an 18 months backlog for civil cases in the High Court (we are at present engaged, with the Hong Kong Government, in trying to recruit an extra High Court judge or judges with the specialised experience necessary to help overcome this problem); as far as we are aware, delays in dealing with
criminal cases are nothing like as long, but may still be longer than is desirable;
(b) Legal Aid
The system of providing legal aid only in district and higher
courts in criminal cases has attracted some criticism in this
country. Hong Kong defend the absence of legal aid in the magistrates' courts on the grounds that the vast number of cases (350,000 in 1978) would make legal aid there prohibitively expen- sive as well as slowing up the processes of justice. Legal aid is available whenever a case is taken to appeal, and Hong Kong are experimenting with a duty lawyer scheme to provide basic legal advice to defendants who cannot afford their own lawyers.
(c) Magistrates
Doubts have been expressed in recent years, about the ability of expatriate magistrates to dispense justice in a society where they do not understand the language, the people or their customs. То counter this, legislation was introduced last year to enable local
/residents