Selection of Lawyer

Selection of Counsel and Solicitors for Legal Aid Assignments

When distributing legal aid work to counsel or solicitors on the Legal Aid Panel, the Department considers the legally aided persons' interests as the paramount consideration. Legal aid work is not distributed equally among lawyers regardless of merits. Counsel or solicitors are selected having regard to their level of experience and expertise of the practitioners concerned and the type and complexity of the particular case. In general, counsel or solicitors are selected according to the following criteria:

Counsel or solicitors should:

(a)	be on the Legal Aid Panel;
(b)	be in active practice;
(c)	have no past unsatisfactory performance record;
(d)	satisfy the minimum experience requirement specified for the relevant area of work;
(e)	not exceed the limit on assignments of legal aid work and/or, where appropriate, costs and fees paid or payable for such work in the past 12 months;
(f)	(in the case of solicitors) have the necessary support and facilities afforded by their firms to handle legal aid work.

Minimum Experience Requirements

For civil cases, counsel or solicitors should:

(a)

have at least 3 years of post-call/post-admission experience; and

(b)

have handled a minimum number of civil cases in the relevant area of work within a specified period:

(i)for medical negligence, professional negligence, administrative/constitutional law (including Bill of Rights) cases, have handled at least 5 such cases* in the past 3 years; and
(ii)for other cases, have handled at least 16 cases* in the relevant area of work in the past 3 years.

*including both legally aided and non-legally aided cases

For criminal cases, counsel or solicitors should:

(a)	have at least 3 years of post-call/post-admission experience;
(b)	have handled at least 5 cases* in the past 3 years in the relevant area of work; and
(c)	meet the minimum experience requirements specified below: (i)Cases in the District Court at least 3 years relevant criminal litigation experience; (ii)Cases in the Court of First Instance and appeals from the Magistrates' Court at least 5 years’ relevant criminal litigation experience; (iii)Appeals to Court of Appeal and Court of Final Appeal # Court of Appeal: Counsel - at least 7 years’ relevant criminal litigation experience Solicitors - at least 5 years’ relevant criminal litigation experience Court of Final Appeal: Counsel - at least 10 years' relevant criminal litigation experience Solicitors - at least 7 years’ relevant criminal litigation experience *including both legally aided and non-legally aided cases #the number of cases handled in the Court of Appeal and in the Court of Final Appeal are considered jointly for the purpose of counting past experience in paragraph (c)(iii) above.

For Senior Counsel, they are exempted from the minimum experience requirements for assignment of civil or criminal legal aid work.

Limits on Legal Aid Assignments

Assignments should not generally exceed the limits set out below:

Civil Cases:

(a)	for solicitors	30 cases within the past 12 months; and
(b)	for counsel	15 cases within the past 12 months.

Judicial Review-related Cases:

(a)	for solicitors	5 cases within the past 12 months; and
(b)	for counsel	3 cases within the past 12 months.

Criminal Cases:

(a)	for solicitors	25 cases or $750,000 legal aid costs within the past 12 months (whichever occurs first); and
(b)	for counsel	25 cases or $1.5 million legal aid fees within the past 12 months (whichever occurs first).

Assignment to counsel and solicitors who do not meet the above selection criteria may be allowed with the approval of a directorate officer.