CONSTITUTION AND ADMINISTRATION
39
The Free Legal Advice Scheme operates in the evening at centres in Sha Tin, Tsuen Wan, Wan Chai, Eastern, Mong Kok, Wong Tai Sin, Kwun Tong and Yau Ma Tei district offices through 345 volunteer lawyers, 24 of whom are deployed weekly. Some 3 273 people are advised annually, having been referred through 120 agencies. Once the problem is identified, appointments are given within seven to 10 days, and, because details of the problems are written down by the staff of the agencies during their interviews with clients, the lawyers are able to give authoritative advice based on the necessary research done before the meeting. People are assisted on matrimonial and employment matters, landlord and tenant queries, and a host of other subjects.
In 1984, the Law Society introduced 'Tel-Law' whereby taped legal information on a number of legal topics was made available during working hours and evenings on 10 telephone lines. The tapes are of 24 minutes duration and encourage people who identify legal problems of their own from listening to the tapes, to use the Free Legal Advice Scheme. The tapes, which are frequently updated, concentrate on four principal areas of interest-matrimonial, landlord and tenant, criminal and financial law - but a large number of new tapes have been added, detailing for example, consumer law and employment. There has been an increase in the number of people with queries on these topics. Fifty-four tapes were available, in Cantonese and English, and 47 578 calls were answered during 1986.
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