Legal Aid in Civil Cases

Civil legal aid applications, apart from applications relating to wages claims which are processed by the Insolvency Unit of the Litigation Division, are handled by the Application and Processing Division.

Eligibility

Successful applicants regardless of their nationality or residence and who pass both the means and merits tests will be granted legal aid. They are given the services of a solicitor and, if necessary, counsel to represent them in legal proceedings conducted in Hong Kong courts.

Refusal of Legal Aid

An applicant who is refused legal aid in civil matters on either means or merits may appeal to the Registrar of the High Court. In respect of the Court of Final Appeal cases, the applicants may appeal to a Review Committee comprising the Registrar of the High Court, a barrister and a solicitor appointed respectively by the Chairman of the Hong Kong Bar Association and the President of the Law Society of Hong Kong. The decision of the Registrar or the Review Committee is final.

Legal Aid in Criminal Cases

Criminal legal aid applications are processed by the Crime Section.

Refusal of Legal Aid

If an applicant is refused criminal legal aid on merits, he can apply to the judge who may grant legal aid on his own initiative provided the applicant is eligible on means.

In 2013, there were 28 refusals on means, 22 of which were also refused on merits. The Director exercised discretion and granted legal aid in 18 other cases even though the means of the applicants exceeded the limit. 26 applications were refused because the applicants concerned failed to supply the Director with the necessary information to conduct a means test.

Legal Aid Electronic Services Portal

Person over the age of 18 can submit pre-application information online for non-urgent civil and criminal cases as a first step towards making an application for legal aid. To make use of this online submission procedure and to ensure confidentiality of information transmitted online, applicants must be holders of a digital certificate issued by the Hong Kong Post or Digi-Sign.

The Legal Aid Electronic Services Portal ("LAESP") also has a means test calculator which allows members of the public to conduct a preliminary assessment of their eligibility on means if they apply for legal aid. Members of the public can visit the departmental website at www.lad.gov.hk or the mobile phone version and access the means test calculator. In 2013, the means test calculator and the mobile version means calculator received 3 006 and 3 259 hits respectively.

Legal Aid Assignments and Monitoring

Assignments

Legal aid work is not distributed to counsel or solicitors on the Legal Aid Panel equally. Interest of the legally aided persons is the paramount consideration. Counsel or solicitors are selected having regard to their level of experience and expertise, the nature and complexity of the particular case, with reference to established guidelines and criteria, which include, amongst others, minimum experience requirements, past performance records and the limit on assignments of legal aid work.

Distribution of Civil and Criminal Assignments to Solicitors / Counsel in 2013

The Department has set up the Departmental Committee on Monitoring Assignments to Counsel and Solicitors to ensure that cases are assigned in accordance with the established assignment criteria and guidelines. The Committee is chaired by the Director of Legal Aid and comprises directorate officers of the Department. It considers reports on the unsatisfactory performance/conduct of assigned lawyers.

In 2013, on the advice of the Committee, 1 solicitor was put on the Record of Unsatisfactory Performance/Conduct.

Mediation in Legal Aid Cases

Legal aid covers mediators' fees and related expenses incurred by legally aided persons undergoing mediation in the course of the aided proceedings. In 2013, funding for mediation was approved in 892 assigned out cases, out of which 137 were matrimonial cases.

Litigation Services

In-house Civil Litigation

The Civil Litigation Section (CLS) of the Litigation Division undertakes civil litigation for aided persons whose cases have been assigned in-house.

Personal Injury Litigation

In 2013, Civil Litigation (1) of CLS took up 146 personal injuries cases including employees' compensation claims, traffic accident claims and negligence claims. Damages over $1M were recovered for aided persons in 5 cases and in one case, the damages recovered was over $12 million. The total amount of damages recovered was about $53 million.

Legal costs recovered for the professional litigation work done by our in-house officers were about $5.3 million.

In 2013, the Family Unit of the Civil Litigation (2) of CLS took up a total of 1 083 family cases including divorce, maintenance, custody and property disputes. It also handled enforcement proceedings for the recovery of outstanding maintenance and costs in family cases litigated in-house.

Wages Claims

The Insolvency Unit of the Civil Litigation (2) of CLS assists employees referred by the Labour Relations Office of the Labour Department to recover arrears of wages and other employment-related benefits. It also handles the ensuing winding up or bankruptcy proceedings.

Where there is sufficient evidence to support the presentation of a petition for winding-up or bankruptcy but it is uneconomical or unreasonable in the particular circumstances to institute court proceedings, the Unit will refer the case to the Protection of Wages on Insolvency Fund Board for consideration of ex-gratia payments to the employees.

In 2013, the Insolvency Unit took out 51 winding-up and 1 bankruptcy petitions. A total of 247 cases were referred to the Protection of Wages on Insolvency Fund Board for ex-gratia payments.

In-house Criminal Litigation

In addition to processing legal aid applications for criminal cases, the Crime Section of the Litigation Division also represents legally aided persons at committal proceedings in the Magistrate's Court, plea day hearing in the District Court, listing hearings in the Court of First Instance as well as bail applications at all levels of court. It also acts as instructing solicitors in cases in the Court of First Instance, the Court of Appeal and the Court of Final Appeal.

In 2013, 86.3% of all criminal cases in the District Court in Hong Kong were legally aided, as were 94.4% of criminal cases in the Court of First Instance.

In 2013, the Crime Section handled 1 938 cases in-house:

Related Legal Support Services

Costing

The Department’s Costing Unit assesses all bills of costs submitted by assigned solicitors and opposite parties and attends taxation hearings.

Cases handled by the Costing Unit in 2012-2013

Enforcement

The Department's Enforcement Unit (EU) handles enforcement proceedings for the recovery of judgment debts and costs in legally aided cases. In 2013, a total of 411 cases were assigned to the EU. In 307 cases enforcement proceedings were instituted. About 60% of the proceedings were instituted within 1 month from the date the cases were assigned to the handling professional officers. The table below shows the length of time taken for enforcement proceedings to be commenced from the date of assignment:

Time taken for commencement of enforcement proceedings in 2013 :

Some of these cases were settled prior to the commencement of or during the enforcement proceedings when the judgment debtors undertook, through negotiation and production of supporting documents, to pay the outstanding amount by instalments.

The costs and damages recovery ratio for cases with enforcement action handled by the Department and finalised in 2013 is as shown in the chart below: