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The Consultation Paper on Legal Services
In order to seek the views of the community on a wide range of issues relating to legal services, in March 1995 the Administration published the Consultation Paper on Legal Services. That paper contained 40 provisional recommendations.
Response to the Consultation Paper was good. 87 submissions were received, of which -
37 came from institutions, including the Law Society and Bar Association
29 came from lawyers
21 came from individual members of the public.
Additional feedback in respect of some of the provisional recommendations was obtained through a Public Opinion Survey of 1,000 households, conducted by the Department of Applied Statistics and Operational Research, City University of Hong Kong; and from the views reported in the press.
Of the 40 provisional recommendations there was clear public support for 34; there was clear public opposition to 1; and public views were evenly divided in respect of 5. Details of the feedback received from the consultation exercise, and the Administration's proposals for the way forward, were set out in the Report on Legal Services, published in February 1996.
The Report on Legal Services
Many of the proposals set out in the Report can be implemented by the legal profession without legislation. For example, there are proposals in respect of improvements to client care and complaints-handling procedures, and in respect of the elimination of touting and commission-taking. The Administration is following-up these proposals with the two professional bodies. With regard to touting and commission-taking in respect of criminal defence work, the Law Society has had an opportunity, over the past year, to tackle this problem by using its audit trail procedures and inspector's powers. The Independent Commission Against Corruption is now making an assessment of the extent of the problem. By the end of the
year, the Administration should be in a position to decide whether there is a need to criminalise this type of behaviour.
So far as legislative proposals are concerned, the Report on Legal Services proposed that a Bill should be introduced into this Council in the current session to implement six of the proposals. The Bill that I am today introducing into this Council contains provisions in respect of five of those proposals, together with certain other amendments that I wi!! describe in a moment. The one legislative amendment that was proposed in the Report but is not included in the Bill relates to the criteria for admission as a barrister.