CONSTITUTION AND ADMINISTRATION
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Court sitting with a jury of seven. A summary of cases heard and dealt with in all courts for the years 1971-3 will be found in Appendix 31.
The highest court in Hong Kong is the Full Court, which sits when required and is composed of two or three judges of the Supreme Court as the Chief Justice directs. The Chief Justice usually presides over this court, which hears appeals from the Supreme Court and the District Court and has jurisdiction corresponding roughly to that of the Court of Appeal in England. Appeals may be brought from the Full Court to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in London.
Legal Aid
There were major developments for the Legal Aid Department during 1973. These included the formation and opening of the department's own litigation unit, the Legal Aid (Assessment of Contributions) (Amendment) Regulations 1973 were enacted by the Governor in Council on September 7, and the department moved to a new premises in the Sincere Company Building, placing all sections under the same roof.
The litigation unit started operation early in 1973 and has since taken over a high proportion of legal aid cases (confined to the solicitors' side of the conduct of cases). Members of the Bar are still briefed, as before, in all cases in which barristers would normally be briefed. The litigation unit deals with many different types of cases, such as winding-up, running-down actions, workmen's compensation and divorce cases on the civil side. It also briefs counsel direct in many types of criminal cases heard in the Supreme Court, the Full Court and the District Court. The effect of this has been to cut substantially expenditure previously made to private practitioners. The operation has also brought a great saving in time in the conduct of legal aid cases, which are now being handled much faster than before.
The effect of the new regulations concerning the assessment of contributions is to make many persons eligible for legal aid who previously would have been in- eligible on the means test. Further, the effect generally will diminish the number of contributions previously payable by aided
persons.
Possibly more important is the provision that new rates of personal allowances correspond to the rates of public assistance currently in force. Whereas previously an aided person received no personal allowance, he does now; and this is taken into account in assessing disposable income. Aided persons with a large family will find it much easier to qualify for legal aid and will, on doing so, have to pay much lower contributions than before. The same regulations also improve the situation for aided persons on the question of disposable capital.
Under rule 15 of the Legal Aid in Criminal Cases Rules the new rates of allow- ances in respect of civil cases will also apply to applications for legal aid in criminal
cases.
The centralisation of all branches of the Legal Aid Department under one roof makes the overall administration of the department more efficient and more flexible.