THE LEGAL SYSTEM
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and companies winding-up proceedings are also undertaken together with general litiga- tion cases involving landlord and tenant disputes, breach of contract and professional negligence. An applicant who is refused legal aid may appeal against such refusal to the Registrar of the Supreme Court or in Privy Council cases to a Committee of Review.
The total estimated expenditure for 1988–9 was $43 million in civil cases. In 1988 15 757 applications were received for legal aid in these cases and 4 745 legal aid certificates were granted. A sum of $91 million was recovered for the legally-aided persons in civil cases.
In the light of the rising divorce rate in Hong Kong an independent counselling agency is provided by the Hong Kong Catholic Marriage Advisory Council to help applicants for legal aid in matrimonial cases with a view to conciliation or re-conciliation. This counselling scheme, funded by the Royal Hong Kong Jockey Club, is in operation in the Legal Aid Department's Kowloon Branch Office.
If a person is granted legal aid in civil matters, the Director of Legal Aid will assign the case either to a private solicitor and a barrister where necessary, or to one of his own professional officers. The department maintains its own litigation units undertaking personal injury litigation, family law and workers' wage claims. The department has various sections specialising in enforcement of judgments for damages and legal costs, application for the grant of letters of administration in fatal cases and preparation of itemised Bills of Costs, all of which provide a support service for cases assigned to private practitioners and its in-house lawyers.
Supplementary Legal Aid
The supplementary legal aid scheme provides legal assistance to those persons in the sandwich-class whose resources place them outside the financial limits under the Legal Aid Scheme but are not sufficient to meet the high costs of conducting litigation on a private basis. This supplementary scheme introduced in October 1984 is available for claims in the High Court for damages for personal injuries or death.
Under this scheme applicants may be granted legal aid if their gross income does not exceed $15,000 per month and their disposable capital does not exceed $100,000. In arriving at the disposable capital the value of an owner-occupied residence and other allowances similar to those under the Legal Aid Scheme are deducted from the gross capital. This scheme was initially funded with an interest-bearing loan from the Government Lotteries Fund and is administered by the Director of Legal Aid. The same merit test for civil legal aid is applied but instead of requiring a contribution a successful litigant under this supplementary scheme pays a percentage of the damages he recovers back into the Scheme's fund so as to assist further litigants in future litigation. The percentage deducted from the damages ranging from 10 per cent to 12.5 per cent depends on the amount recovered and on whether the case is settled prior to the trial of the action.
The total estimated expenditure in 1988-9 was $1.2 million. During 1988, 90 applications were received of which 41 were granted.
The department has its headquarters at Queensway Government Offices on Hong Kong Island and a branch office in Kowloon. The establishment comprises 371 persons, of whom 50 are professional lawyers and 114 are law clerks who are para-legal personnel. Training for the law clerks is provided by the professional officers and from time to time officers at all levels attended job related training courses provided by the Civil Service Training Division. The department is also providing articles of clerkship to trainee solicitors and participates in the training programme for articled clerks and barristers' pupils whose articles or pupilage are with members of the Attorney General's Chambers.