ENG-1993 — Page 63

THE LEGAL SYSTEM

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Solicitor received a total of 157 such requests in receivership, unclaimed estates, adoption, guardianship, and other cases. The Official Solicitor assigned less than 10 per cent of the cases to private legal practitioners for litigation, and litigated the balance herself.

Duty Lawyer Service

The Duty Lawyer Service was, until August 17, 1993, known as the Law Society Legal Advice and Duty Lawyer Schemes. It operates the Legal Advice Scheme, which provides legal advice; the Duty Lawyer Scheme, which provides legal representation; and the Tel Law Scheme, which provides legal information over the telephone.

The service is jointly managed and administered by the Law Society and the Bar Association of Hong Kong. It is funded by the government and the subvention in 1993-94 was approximately $57 million.

The Legal Advice Scheme was set up in 1978 to provide to members of the public free advice, without means testing, at five advice centres located in the District Offices. Members of the public can make appointments to see the volunteer lawyers through one of the 120 referral agencies, which include all District Offices, Caritas Services Centres and the Social Welfare Department. There are approximately 450 lawyers in the scheme. A total of 3 057 people were given legal advice during the year.

The Duty Lawyer Scheme was introduced in 1979. It initially provided free legal representation to defendants charged with one of six 'scheduled' offences in three - magistracies. This was subsequently extended to nine 'scheduled' offences in 1981 and covered all magistracies in 1983. Upon the enactment of the Bill of Rights Ordinance in 1991, the scheme was expanded to offer representation to virtually all defendants charged in the magistracies who cannot afford private representation.

The scheme also assigns barristers and solicitors, on a roster basis, to advise defendants facing extradition, to monitor the one-way viewer in police identification parades and to represent hawkers upon their appeals to the Governor in Council.

Applicants are subject to a simple means test, with the financial eligibility limit set at a gross annual income of $90,000. The Administrator of the Duty Lawyer Service has a discretion to grant legal representation to defendants whose gross annual income exceeds the specified financial eligibility limit. An applicant is also subject to a merits test, based on the 'interest of justice' principle in accordance with the Bill of Rights Ordinance. The prime consideration is whether the defendant is in jeopardy of losing his liberty or whether a substantial question of law is involved.

In 1993, there were approximately 710 remunerated barristers and solicitors on the duty lawyer roster. A total of 35 413 defendants facing charges received advice and representation at trial under the Duty Lawyer Scheme.

The Tel Law Scheme was introduced in 1984 as a free telephone enquiry service. It provides members of the public with basic taped legal information, in both English and Chinese, on the legal aspects of everyday problems. The tapes covers aspects of matrimonial, landlord and tenant, criminal, financial, employment, environmental and administrative law. The tapes are constantly updated, and new tapes are added when a new subject is identified as being of interest to the public. During the year, Tel Law handled over 47 611 calls.