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The Legal System

defending a legal action in the Hong Kong courts is not prevented from doing so because of a lack of means. Eligible applicants receive legal aid through the provision of the services of a solicitor and, if necessary, of a barrister.

Legal Aid Department

The Legal Aid Department provides legal aid services to any person, irrespective of his residence or nationality, who satisfies the means and merits tests. It has an establishment of about 540 staff, including 76 professional lawyers.

Legal Aid in Civil Cases

Legal aid under the Ordinary Scheme is available for civil proceedings in the District Court, Court of First Instance, Court of Appeal, Court of Final Appeal, applications to the Mental Health Review Tribunal and death inquests if it is in the interests of public justice to do so. Major types of cases covered include family disputes, personal injury claims, employment disputes, disputes related to landed properties, contractual disputes, immigration matters and professional negligence claims.

An applicant must pass the means and merits tests to qualify for legal aid. For the means test, the applicant must show that his financial resources (the aggregate of his annual disposable income and total disposable capital after deduction of a statutory allowance and certain deductible items) do not exceed $260,000. For applicants aged 60 or above, the first $260,000 will be disregarded when calculating the amount of disposable capital.

The Director of Legal Aid may waive the upper financial eligibility limit in meritorious cases where a breach of the Hong Kong Bill of Rights Ordinance or an inconsistency with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights as applied to Hong Kong is an issue.

For the merits test, the applicant must satisfy the Director of Legal Aid that he has reasonable grounds for bringing or defending the civil proceedings.

An aided person may be required to pay a contribution depending on his financial resources and is required to pay back all the expenses incurred in the proceedings that are not recovered from the opposite party out of property recovered or preserved on his behalf in the proceedings.

An applicant who is refused civil legal aid may appeal to the Registrar of the High Court, or in Court of Final Appeal cases, to a Review Committee chaired by the Registrar of the High Court and comprising a barrister and a solicitor.

Supplementary Legal Aid Scheme

This scheme provides legal assistance to applicants whose financial resources exceed the Ordinary Scheme's limit, with an upper financial eligibility limit of $1.3 million. The scheme covers cases involving personal injury or death, medical, dental or legal professional negligence, where the claim for damages is likely to exceed $60,000, as well as claims under the Employees' Compensation Ordinance irrespective of the amount of the claim. The scheme was significantly expanded in November 2012 to cover a wider range of professional negligence claims,

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