XN000022-1995-01-09 — Page 5

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Public to be consulted on legal services

A consultation paper on legal services will be issued in the near future to seek the community's views on a number of issues relating to lawyers' services provided to the public, the Attorney General, Mr Jeremy Mathews, said at the Legal Year opening ceremony today (Monday).

The paper will cover a number of important issues, including questions of monopolies enjoyed by lawyers, restrictive practices, access and advertising, fees, the business structure of lawyers practices, quality and remedies, and legal services in respect of conveyancing.

Mr Mathews said there was a growing demand within the community for a legal system that was accessible, effective, affordable and credible and these issues were too important to leave to the lawyers alone.

He said: "All these issues are matters of public interests, and the views expressed by members of the public on the paper will have an important bearing on the formulation of Government policy."

Turning to localisation of the Legal Department, Mr Mathews stressed that targets were set with care to ensure that localisation was not pursued at the expense of quality.

He pointed out that the target of having officers on local terms to hold 60 per cent of posts overall was reached in October last year, a full 14 months ahead of schedule, and the other target of 50 per cent localisation of the directorate would be achieved by the end of the year.

He was confident that the localisation policies, namely the Double Ladder Scheme, Development Posts Scheme, Legal Trainee Scheme and Succession Posts Scheme, were the right ones.

They ensured a steady, carefully calibrated pace of localisation consistent with the maintenance of high standards, he said.

On the issue of the Court of Final Appeal (CFA), the Attorney General said the establishment of the CFA before 1997 would enable the Court to gain acceptance and to build up a track record of jurisprudence and eliminate any uncertainty about what sort of a court would be set up after 1997.

He said: "Were a CFA not to be set up now, there would be complete uncertainty as to what form the legislation would take, whether it would be based upon existing and familiar principles or not, and as to who the judges of the court would be.