The Department is committed to promoting public awareness and understanding of the services it provides and to enhancing communication with our stakeholders.

  "Law Week 2009"

The Department teamed up with the Law Society to promote awareness of the rule of law and availability of legal aid services during the "Law Week 2009".  The Opening TV Special of "Law Week 2009" was broadcasted on 28 November on ATV Home Channel.  The officiating guests that included the Chief Justice, the Honourable Mr Justice Andrew Li, the Secretary for Justice, Mr Wong Yan Lung SC, Legislative Council Member the Honourable Ms Margaret Ng, the Chairman of the Hong Kong Bar Association Mr Russell Coleman, the President of the Law Society Mr Huen Wong and the Director were joined by an audience of over 600 at the ATV studio.  In addition, Mr Chris Chong, Assistant Principal Legal Aid Counsel from the Litigation Division, appeared in a recorded programme which introduced the legal aid services of the Department to the public.

During the year 2009, the Department received a total of 29 delegations/groups:

September 4 Assistant Principal Legal Aid Counsel/Civil Litigation 1, Mr Chris Chong (fifth from left) and Senior Legal Aid Counsel, Ms Amy Lee (first from left) received a delegation of 9 officials from China under the "Attachment of Mainland Officials under the Cooperation Agreement", and briefed them on the role and function of Legal Aid Department.

Media Enquiries

In 2009, the Department's Information Unit handled about 700 enquiries from the media.

The Legal Aid Department News (LAD News) is published to enhance public awareness and understanding of legal aid and to keep the public informed of developments in legal aid services.

Printed copies of the newsletter were placed in the reception areas of the various offices of the Department and were distributed to public enquiry counters of the Home Affairs Department, non-governmental organisations, correctional institutions, court liaison officers etc.  Past and current issues of the LAD News were also regularly uploaded onto the Department's website.

November 19 Assistant Principal Legal Aid Counsel/Crime, Ms YW Mo (fourth from left in the front row) and Senior Legal Aid Counsel/Application and Processing, Mr Francis Chan (second from left in the front row) received a delegation of 25 Mainland officials from Hebei Province 2009, and briefed them on the role and function of Legal Aid Department.

In addition to the publication of information leaflets on legal aid services in seven ethnic minorities languages including Bengali, Hindi, Indonesian, Nepali, Tagalog, Thai and Urdu in 2008, the Department had also published two more leaflets on legal aid in Vietnamese and Punjabi in 2009 with a view to making the services known to as many people as possible.  

The information leaflets are available from the Department, the relevant consulates, government departments such as the Correctional Services Department, Judiciary Resources Centre, Labour Department, Police Stations and Public Enquiries Service Centres of the Home Affairs Department.  The information leaflets can also be downloaded from the Department's website.

To reflect changes implemented in 2009, the Financial Information Sheet, which contained comprehensive information on current eligibility limit, personal allowances, contributions for Ordinary Legal Aid Scheme and Director of Legal Aid's First Charge prescribed interest rate, was revised and published for public information.

In 2009, several publications of the Department including Contribution towards Costs of Legal Aid Case and Director of Legal Aid's First Charge, How Your Financial Resources and Contribution are Calculated, How to Apply Legal Aid in Civil Cases and Customer Service Standards, were also updated to advise the public that they could make use of the Department's electronic services - LASEP (Legal Aid Electronic Services Portal), which allowed digital certificate holders over the age of 18, to submit online pre-application information before formal application.  The fact sheet and flowcharts on divorce matters were updated to include the availability of mediation in divorce proceedings following the implementation of the Civil Justice Reform (CJR) in April 2009 when mediation became an integral part of civil proceedings.

A list of publications of the Department is at Appendix 6.  

The Department regularly updates the contents of its website to provide comprehensive and timely information to the public and legal aid practitioners.  In 2009, in addition to messages concerning changes in the interest rate on the Director's First Charge, personal allowances and financial eligibility limits, information leaflets on legal aid services in Vietnamese and Punjabi were also uploaded to the Department's website.  Pop-up messages were used to draw the attention of the public and legal aid practitioners to important issues concerning legal aid services including new financial eligibility limits, new measures to prevent duplicate correspondence from assigned practitioners with the Director and funding support for mediation in legally aided civil proceedings, etc.

Case progress checklists for major types of legal aid cases including personal injury cases, judicial review cases, contractual claims, divorce cases and employees' compensation cases were also uploaded to the Department's website in 2009.  The checklists are intended to serve as reference and to provide a timeframe for legal aid practitioners to report on the progress of the aided proceedings.  With the implementation of the CJR, these checklists would be revised taking into account the impact of and the changes to procedures introduced by the CJR to civil proceedings.

In 2009, the new Simplified Chinese Conversion Service (SCCS) was adopted for the Department's website to replace the previous technology used for converting the conventional Chinese to simplified Chinese for web pages.  This service adopts an off-line translation approach which enables the simplified Chinese version of web pages to be reviewed before publishing, thus ensuring that the web contents are prepared in the same and consistent manner.