The legal service hotline number "148" is now opened in more than 90 percent of China's counties, sources with the Ministry of Justice said in Beijing.

This idea was first created in the Dongming County justice bureau of Shandong Province in March this year. Dialing the number "148," ordinary people can ask local justice authorities to provide legal consultations, lawyers, notarization and other kinds of free or paid services.

To coincide with the new policy of the rule of law, the Ministry of Justice decided to make such a hotline available nationwide to increase the government's role in serving the public.

Now, the "148" hotline is functioning in 2,773 counties, or 90. 9 percent of all counties in the country, and soon the entire nation will be covered, a ministry official said.

Shandong and Fujian provinces and the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region even have hotlines in township justice bureaus and stations. More than 20,000 people across the country are working in these hotline operations.

Statistics from the Ministry of Justice show that the hotline office workers provided legal consultations to 800,00 people and received 200,000 visitors with legal problems in the first 10 months this year.

At the same time, justice bureaus across the country handled a total of 170,000 legal cases transferred from the hotlines from January to October, mediated in 60,000 disputes, and provided legal assistance to more than 10,000 people who could not afford lawyers.

More than 140,000 yuan of economic losses were avoided or recovered for hotline users during the first 10 months this year.

The Ministry of Justice is formulating detailed rules for hotline operations in an effort to institute a more efficient and standardized mechanism for legal service and assistance.