葉錫恩
(MRS.) E. ELLIOTT.
TEL. 8-422414
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55. Kung Lok Road, Kwun Tong,
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To highlight the whole position, please refer to the present Mongkok Police syndicate trial in which the prosecution alleges that the courts quite unwittingly have been used to further the interests of corruption, a claim I made many years ago and was strongly denounced in Government circles for so doing. What is most extraordinary is that years ago, when a Magistrate complained under statutory declaration that he had been approached by a police superintendent offering to pay him money into an overseas banking account if he would close his eyes as to whether the persons appearing before him were the real culprits, the Attorney-General took no action whatever.
II. (b) The Legal Profession
Again, I have with regret to say that it is not only found wanting, but that it is in a scandalous situation. From people interviewed during our prison visits, we were alarmed to hear of the enormous fees the litigants have to pay, sometimes for totally ineffective services. As I have earlier said I doubt whether legal aid, even if extended to the Magistrates' Courts, would be a panacea for all evils, but it might well help in a number of cases. The main problem lies in the fact that the vast majority of members of the profession, (usually but not always confined to solicitors), are concerned only about how much money they can make in a single day, rushing from court to court and pressuring their clients to plead guilty to save time, avoiding defending cases because of the time factor which is of utmost importance to those in pursuit of money. There were a number of complaints from those interviewed about the way in which their cases were conducted by their legal representatives. Some said they had to approach their lawyers only through interpreters, and that they had not met them until they had appeared in court for the first time. As an illustration of the incompetence of some lawyers, I was told by a Magistrate (who shall remain nameless), and his view is shared by a number of his colleagues, that it would even be better not to have legal aid at all, because of the incompetence of some of the lawyers appearing before them. The trouble here is that well established-members of both branches of the profession are rarely if ever engaged in the legal aid scheme, or in fact concerned in any way about poor people, thus leaving it to the less experienced, or laying too heavy a burden on the few good lawyers willing to accept legal aid cases.
III. Prisons
This brings me to my final point, concerning the prisons themselves, which was the original purpose of our visits to penal institutions.
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