Lin Ping, senior reporter of The Paper
On the issue of legal aid, the draft legal aid law proposes to make it clear that if a person who may be sentenced to life imprisonment or the death penalty needs assistance, a lawyer with more than three years of relevant practice experience should be appointed as a defender.
On June 4, the Legislative Affairs Committee of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress held a press conference, at which spokesman Zang Tiewei gave a briefing on the legislative work and answered reporters' questions.
The Paper notes that the 29th session of the Standing Committee of the 13th National People's Congress will be held in Beijing from June 7 to 10, and the draft legal aid law is to be submitted for second deliberation.
Zang Tiewei introduced that in January 2021, the 25th meeting of the Standing Committee conducted the first review of the draft legal aid law. On the basis of the opinions of various quarters, the second deliberation draft of the draft submitted to the current Standing Committee meeting for deliberation is proposed to make the following major amendments: First, further broaden the channels and encourage and support more social forces to participate in legal aid; second, clearly improve the legal aid guarantee system and raise the level of funding guarantees; third, clearly encourage legal aid volunteer services, improve the scope of services and management norms; fourth, clarify the conditions for lawyers who provide legal aid for some special criminal cases; fifth, expand the coverage of civil and administrative legal aid. Sixth, improve the standard of legal aid subsidies and make it clear that legal aid subsidies are exempt from value-added tax and individual income tax; seventh, establish and improve the relevant supervision system for legal aid work.
A reporter asked that legal aid is a service provided to parties with financial difficulties. For these groups, in order to ensure the quality of legal aid, is there any targeted provision in the draft legal aid law?
"Legal aid is an important legal system established by the state to ensure that citizens with economic difficulties and other parties who meet the legal requirements can obtain legal consultation, criminal representation and other pro bono legal services, protect the legitimate rights and interests of parties, promote the correct implementation of the law, and safeguard social fairness and justice." Zang Tiewei said that in order to ensure the quality of legal aid and ensure that citizens with economic difficulties and other parties who meet the conditions can obtain legal assistance in a timely and effective manner, the draft legal aid law makes a series of targeted provisions.
For example, legal aid personnel are explicitly required to perform their duties in accordance with law and promptly provide legal services that meet the standards of recipients; where persons who may be sentenced to life imprisonment or death need legal aid, the legal aid institution shall appoint lawyers with more than three years of relevant practice experience to serve as defenders; judicial administrative departments shall conduct training for legal aid personnel, improve the professional quality and service capabilities of legal aid personnel, establish a system for the investigation and handling of complaints about legal aid work, and strengthen supervision and management of legal aid services. Formulate standards for the quality of legal aid services, periodically conducting quality assessments through third-party assessments, and other such means; legal aid institutions employ measures such as trial observation, case file inspections, and return visits to recipients, urging legal aid personnel to improve service quality.
Editor-in-Charge: Yuhao Zhong
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