A358
Ord. No. 54/84
Amendment of section 9.
7.
LEGAL AID (AMENDMENT)
who wishes to be granted legal aid for making application to a court for an order enabling civil proceedings (being civil proceedings in respect of which legal aid may be granted under this Ordinance) to be conducted on behalf of a person who is mentally disordered.".
Section 9 of the principal Ordinance is amended— (a) by deleting paragraph («) and substituting the following-
"(a)
(Cap. 227.)
make such inquiries as he thinks fit as to the means of the applicant and as to the merits of the case and, for the purpose of the latter, he shall be entitled to be supplied free of charge-
(i) with a copy of the minute or relevant extract from the register referred to in section 35A of the Magistrates Ordinance in any relevant proceedings and in accordance with the provisions of that section;
(ii) with a transcript of the evidence in any proceedings to which the application relates and, in the event of there being any other relevant proceedings (being proceedings to which sub- paragraph (i) does not relate), with a transcript of the relevant evidence in such other proceedings and also, if such other proceed- ings are criminal proceedings, of the judge's summing up in such other proceedings;”;
(5) in paragraph (e) by inserting after “applicant" the following--
"or of any person on whose behalf the applicant is acting".
Section 10 of the principal Ordinance is amended- (a) by deleting subsection (1) and substituting the following—
Amendment of section 10.
8.
"(1) Subject to subsections (2) and (3), the Director may grant to a person a certificate that that person is entitled under the provisions of this Ordinance to legal aid in connexion with any proceedings if the Director is satisfied that-
(a) legal aid is sought in connexion with proceedings for which legal aid may be granted under section 5 or, as the case may be, section 5A;
(b) in the case of legal aid to which section 5 applies the dis- posable income of that person does not exceed the amount specified in respect of disposable income in that section;
(c) in the case of legal aid to which section 5A applies the income of that person does not exceed the amount specified in respect of income in that section; and
(d) that person does not have disposable capital of more than such amount as may be specified in respect of disposable capital in section 5 or, as the case may be, section 5A.”;
(b) in subsection (2)-—
(i) by deleting "Notwithstanding the provisions of subsection (1), the” and substituting the following-
"The":
(ii) by deleting “paragraphs (b) and (c) of";
(c) by inserting after subsection (2) the following subsection---
"(3) A person shall not be granted a legal aid certificate in connexion with any proceedings unless he shows that he has reasonable grounds for taking, defending, opposing or continuing such proceed- ings or being a party thereto, and may also be refused legal aid where it appears to the Director that—
(a) only a trivial advantage would be gained by the applicant
from such proceedings;
9.
LEGAL AID (AMENDMENT)
Ord. No. 54/84
A359
(b) on account of the simple nature of the proceedings a solicitor
would not ordinarily be employed; or
(c) it is unreasonable that the applicant should be granted legal
aid in the particular circumstances of the case.”.
Section 12 of the principal Ordinance is amended— (a) by renumbering it as subsection (1);
(b) in subsection (1) by deleting the full stop and substituting the following-----
"unless the Director is already acting in any proceedings to which an aided person is a party when such other party makes application for legal aid, in which case the Director may, if in his opinion no conflict of interest or prejudice to any aided person arises, continue so to act."; (c) by inserting after subsection (1) the following subsection---
"(2) Where the Director continues to act for an aided person in accordance with the proviso to subsection (1) he shall assign from the panel a solicitor and, additionally or alternatively, counsel to act for the other aided person.".
10. Section 13 of the principal Ordinance is amended—
(a) in subsection (1)(b) by deleting "from the panel”;
(b) by inserting after subsection (2) the following subsection--
"(3) Counsel or a solicitor selected under subsection (1)(b), whether by the aided person or by the Director, shall be selected from the panel and no leading counsel may be selected by an aided person, except where subsection (2) applies, unless the Director consents thereto.".
11. Section 14 of the principal Ordinance is amended-
(a) by deleting subsection (1) and substituting the following-
**(1) The Director shall file the legal aid certificate in the registry of the court--
(a) in which proceedings for which legal aid has been granted have been commenced, as soon as practicable after the issue of the certificate; and
(b) in any other case, upon the commencement of such proceed-
ings in that court,
and no court fee shall be charged upon the filing of such certificate.";
(b) in subsection (2) by deleting "by letter" and substituting the following--
"in writing";
(c) by deleting subsections (3) and (4).
Amendment of section 12.
Amendment of section 13.
Amendment of section 14.
12. Section 15(1) of the principal Ordinance is amended by inserting after "any Amendment of party" the following-
", or any person who wishes to be joined as a party,”.
section 15.
13. Section 16(1) of the principal Ordinance is amended by deleting “, which Amendment of grounds, together with the reasons therefor, shall be set out in detail in the section 16. certificate".
14. The principal Ordinance is amended in Part IV by adding, immediately Addition of new before section 17, the following-
"Benefits afforded to uided persons.
16B. Subject to the provisions of this Ordinance, where a person receives legal aid in connexion with any proceedings----
(a) the expenses incurred in connexion with the proceedings, so far as they would ordinarily be paid in the first instance by
sections 16B and 16C.
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Private notes are available after approval.