SPEECH BY THE ATTORNEY GENERAL
IN LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL ON WEDNESDAY 12 DECEMBER 1979
CRIMINAL PROCEDURE ORDINANCE
(Chapter 221)
Sir,
I move the third motion standing in my name on the Order Paper. This secks approval of the Legal Aid in Criminal Cases (Amendment) Rules 1979 which were made by the Chief Justice on 29th November.
The purpose of these rules is to increase the maximum permissible fees payable by the Director of Legal Aid to solicitors and counsel assigned under the principal rules to represent accused persons in their trials in the High Court or District Court and for criminal appeals. In respect of trials in the High Court and criminal appeals, the existing maximum fees were fixed as long ago as January 1970 and for District Court trials in August 1973.
During the last decade there has been a considerable increase in the cost of living, and consequently in the overheads of legal practitioners in the private sector. To meet these increases legal practitioners have naturally substantially raised their fees for non-legal aid cases. In the Government sector during the same period the salaries of lawyers in the Public Service have likewise been increased substantially.
The stage has now been reached that many legal practitioners who accept legal aid assignments do so only at considerable personal financial sacrifice, because the present prescribed maximum foes that may be paid to them under the principal rules have become unrealistic with the passage of time.
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