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The Legal System
Eligible applicants are granted legal aid certificates and receive the services of a solicitor and/or a barrister.
The department provides legal aid services to any person, irrespective of residence or nationality, who satisfies both the means and merits tests. It has about 560 staff, including 84 lawyers.
Legal Aid in Civil Cases
The department runs an Ordinary Legal Aid Scheme for civil proceedings in the District Court, Court of First Instance, Court of Appeal and Court of Final Appeal; applications to the Mental Health Review Tribunal; and death inquests if the interests of public justice so require. Major types of cases covered include family disputes, personal injury claims, employment disputes, disputes related to landed properties, contractual disputes, immigration matters and professional negligence claims.
The means test requires applicants to show their financial resources - the sum of the person's annual disposable income and total disposable capital after deducting a statutory allowance and certain deductible items do not exceed $307,130. For applicants aged 60 or above, the test also disregards the first $307,130 when calculating the disposable capital.
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The Director of Legal Aid may waive the statutory financial eligibility limit in meritorious cases where a breach of the Hong Kong Bill of Rights Ordinance or an inconsistency with the ICCPR as applied to Hong Kong is an issue.
The merits test requires applicants to satisfy the director that there are reasonable grounds for bringing or defending the civil proceedings.
Aided persons may have to pay a contribution, depending on their financial resources, and are required to repay all the expenses incurred in the proceedings that are not recovered from the opposite party out of the property recovered or preserved on their behalf in the proceedings.
An applicant who is refused civil legal aid may appeal to the Registrar of the High Court or, in Court of Final Appeal cases, to a Review Committee chaired by the Registrar of the High Court and also including a barrister and a solicitor.
Supplementary Legal Aid Scheme
This scheme helps people whose financial resources exceed the Ordinary Scheme's limit, allowing an eligibility limit of $1,535,650. The scheme covers the following types of cases where the claim is likely to exceed $60,000 personal injury claims; medical, dental or legal professional negligence claims, as well as professional negligence claims against practising certified public accountants, registered architects, registered professional engineers, registered professional surveyors, registered professional planners, authorised land surveyors, registered landscape architects and estate agents; negligence claims against insurers or their intermediaries in respect of the taking out of personal insurance products; and monetary claims against vendors in the sale of first-hand residential properties.
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