CONSTITUTION AND ADMINISTRATION
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Court, whose decision is final. After legal aid is granted, the case is assigned either to solicitors in private practice, or to lawyers in the department's Litigation Divisions who perform the same role as solicitors in private practice. For cases in the High Court, the Court of Appeal and the Privy Council, whether they are conducted by the department's own lawyers or by outside solicitors, barristers in private practice are briefed to act for an aided person.
Criminal Legal Aid
Legal aid is available for all criminal proceedings in the District Court, the High Court and the Court of Appeal, and also for appeals to the High Court from the Magistrates' Courts. The criminal legal aid scheme is also means-tested but only a few applicants are disqualified on means. Normally most accused persons are granted legal aid owing to the seriousness of the charges brought in the District Court and the High Court. Legal aid is also given to plead in mitigation of sentence for any accused person who wishes to plead guilty. In appeal cases legal aid is granted only if there are valid grounds for appeal. In capital cases whether in respect of trial or appeal, legal aid is mandatory if the applicant is within the financial limits and is discretionary even if he is outside these limits. The Court has the power to grant legal aid to an applicant whose request for aid is turned down by the department provided he is financially eligible. As in civil legal aid, criminal cases are either assigned to the department's Litigation Divisions or to private practitioners.
Administration of legal aid
The Legal Aid Department has 44 professional officers who are lawyers of many years' experience, 64 law clerks, who are paralegals, 11 Chinese Language Officers who are highly trained-interpreters-cum-translators, two Executive Officers and a host of support staff totalling 266 personnel.
The department's headquarters are on Hong Kong Island with a branch office in Kowloon. It also has a mobile unit - a specially-equipped van - which goes out each day on a regular schedule to various towns in the New Territories.
Over the years tens of millions of dollars have been obtained through legal aid for litigants in civil cases. Financial figures do not show what legal aid has achieved in criminal cases, however, many people acquitted in criminal trials and appeals owe their freedom to the ready availability of legal aid. The government is committed to an adequate legal aid system within its programme of social justice and plans are being prepared to expand the legal aid schemes to cover wider sectors of the population and to make the schemes more flexible.
Legal Advice and Assistance Schemes
The Law Society, through an executive committee which includes Bar Association representatives, administers two schemes which provide free legal advice in civil law matters, and free legal representation to defendants for certain criminal cases heard in five magistrates courts. The service is funded by government subvention, which in 1981 totalled $5.3 million.
Some 170 unpaid volunteer lawyers - drawn from the Bar, practising solicitors, and commonwealth lawyers in government service have manned the Free Legal Advice Scheme throughout 1981. Seventeen of these lawyers have been deployed weekly at evening bureaux established in City District Offices at Wan Chai, Eastern, and Mong Kok, and District Offices at Tsuen Wan, and Sha Tin, the latter being established in April.