THE LEGAL SYSTEM
handling charge. In 1996, 39 202 defendants were assisted under the scheme, which also assigns lawyers to represent defendants facing extradition, to represent suspects attending one-way viewer identification parades and to represent hawkers at the hearings of their appeals to the Governor in Council. There were 924 barristers and solicitors on the Duty Lawyer Panel.
The free Legal Advice Scheme was set up in 1978 to provide members of the public free legal advice at legal advice centres located in the District Offices. A new centre was opened in January 1996 in the Central and Western District Office, increasing the number of advice centres to six. Any member of the public can make an appointment to meet volunteer lawyers for legal advice through one of the 120 referral agencies which include all the District Offices, Caritas Service Centres and the Social Welfare Department. In 1996, there were more than 580 volunteer lawyers participating in this scheme and 5 117 people were given advice.
The Tel-law Scheme was introduced in 1984 to provide members of the public with taped legal information by telephone. In 1995, the Tel-law system was fully computerised and upgraded into a 24-hour automatic answering service. The tapes are in Chinese and English and cover aspects of the law including matrimonial, landlord and tenant, criminal, commercial, employment, environmental and administrative law. They are constantly updated and new tapes are added when a new subject is identified as being of interest to the public. In 1996, there were 69 topics available and 19 168 calls were received.
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