Beijing Dongyuan Law Firm
Provider of legal aid
In order to provide effective legal aid, enable civilians to afford the expenses of lawsuits, allow the low-incomed and poverty-stricken class to be protected by laws effectively, and radicate the fairness and impartiality of laws in the minds of the multitude, as well as to facilitate the building of a legal system in Beijing city and management over State affairs according to laws, Beijing Dongyuan Law Firm has brought legal aid service into its business scope, and allocated some funds and labor force, as well as appointed certain lawyers to undertake those legal aid cases passed over by Beijing Legal Aid Center, so as to provide legal aid to clients’ satisfaction.
Ⅰ Preliminary achievements in terms of provision of legal aid
Up to today, Beijing Legal Aid Center has appointed our firm to undertake 23 legal aid cases, most of which have been closed without a hitch. The working performance of our lawyers have been acknowledged by the agents concerned. For instance, a man whose surname is Qiu, originally from Dasha Village, GuoJi Township, Yaning County, Jiangsu Province, came to work in Beijing in 1998; he fell down from a ladder during the construction work, and thus broke his left thighbone. Over the past six years, he received no compensation for his medical expenses and personal injury, after having been hospitalized. At the end of December of 2003, Beijing Legal Aid Center passed this case over to our firm. Although it was approaching the Spring Festival at that time, our firm, after accepting this case, immediately dispatched lawyers to investigate into detailed information, and then won the case within as short as one week’s time. As a result, this Mr. Qiu received a disability grant up to RMB 80,000 yuan. Prior to the Spring Festival of Year 2004, Mr. Qiu, walking on crutches, brought a silk banner embroidered with eight Chinese characters that meant “angle of justice” to our firm, which warmed the hearts of our lawyers in that cold winter.
Other legal aid cases that have been successfully closed thanks to the diligent efforts made by our lawyers also included: Lv He’s Voluntary Mans-laughter Case, Shi Zhanqi’s Robbery and Voluntary Man-slaughter Case, Zhao Xiang and Wang Fubin’s Robbery Case, and the case featuring Chen Guifen’s claim for compensation regarding supplementary civil actions in criminal proceedings.
Although it is a task of enormity to handle legal aid cases, we have achieved some positive results in this regard, owing to the concerted efforts made by the membership of our working personnel. In the same breath, our lawyers are also pleased to honor the justice for civilians.
Ⅱ Successful experience in provision of legal aid
1. To bring the provision of legal aid service into the work program of partners
In July 2003, our firm’s partners meeting reached a resolution, going as “to make best endeavors to accept and solve those legal aid cases passed over by the Legal Aid Center”. To this aim, our firm has allocated a particular fund to financially support the handling of such legal aid cases, and also specified the concrete partner who takes charge of handling such legal aid cases. In practices, our partners play a leading role in handling such cases passed over by the Legal Aid Center. For instance, Han Jikun (Deputy Director), Zhang Yan (partner), and Li Jiren (Partner) have all handled legal aid cases in person. To mention something more, Han Jikun (Deputy Director) and Lu Juan (partner) have even gone to the Legal Aid Center to keep watch in person, thus to contextualize the key issues that the multitude is mostly concerned about.
2. To have established a Leading Group in charge of legal aid work
We have established a Leading Group in charge of legal aid work, according to the above stated resolution reached on the partners’ meeting. This Group is especially liable for organizing personnel to handle, and supervising the handling process of, those legal aid cases that our firm undertakes.
3. To standardize the provision of legal aid by means of systems
Our law firm has formulated the “Method for Management over Handling of Legal Aid Cases”, so as to standard the provision of legal aid service. In reality, we accept, sort out, coordinate the handling process, and close the legal aid cases in a standardized and unified way.
Ⅲ A few suggestions regarding the provision of legal aid service
1. When accepting and hearing legal aid cases, the Legal Aid Center shall investigate the economic conditions of the agents concerned at first; and then explain clearly to the agents concerned that they shall not seek help from other lawyers additionally, after they have access to legal aid service, so as to avoid different lawyers from handling the same cases.
2. The case handling charges shall not be fixed; as to special, complicated and tricky cases, it is required to grant more allowances appropriately. When formulating the concrete method for granting allowances towards criminal cases, it is required to consider the number of suspects involved in the case, nature of crime, gravity of crime, amount of money involved, and the number of files, from case to case.
3. As to legal aid cases, if it is impossible to acquire the effective evidence that proves that the case has already been wound up for any reason on the part of the agents concerned, the law firm shall then present such a testimonial and put on its official seal on such a testimonial; then the case shall be deemed as having been closed; whilst the Legal Aid Center shall go through the case-closing formalities then.
4. If the agents concerned have not only had access to legal aid, but also engaged some lawyers in addition, the Legal Aid Center is then suggested to coordinate with the court, thus to strike up a system, in which the court is liable for presenting a written testimonial upon the fact that the agents concerned have already engaged lawyers in addition, towards such circumstances, so as to avoid lawyers from visiting the court unnecessarily repeatedly for the purpose of closing such cases.
5. It is not allowed to handle legal aid cases in a perfunctory way; instead, it is required to safeguard the rights of the agents concerned from the perspective of time, allow lawyers to have enough time to make sound preparations for going to court, so as to ensure the working performance of lawyers.
6. The court shall levy charges (such as photocopying charges) from those lawyers liable for handling such legal aid cases by appropriate amounts, and bring down the case-handling costs of lawyers on all fronts.
7. It is suggested to mobilize social forces to solicit funds thus to offer aid to the low-incomed groups, and enable civilians to afford the costs of lawsuits.
