China to Regulate Grass roots Legal Service SectorChinese Minister of Justice Gao Changli has signed decrees issuing two regulations on the operations of government-funded grassroots legal service agencies, and on the qualifications of their employees.The ministry will hold the first national examination of the professional qualifications of lawyers and others who work for these agencies, the ministry said in a press release today. The so-called grassroots legal service agencies are operated by judicial departments across the country to provide both paid and free legal services to the public, including legal aid to the poor. There are 119,000 legal service workers in 35,000 grassroots agencies, which are located in 74 percent of the country's rural towns and in neighborhood communities in cities. In 1999, these people served as regular legal consultants for 400,000 enterprises, institutions, and individuals. According to statistics from the ministry, last year, these legal service workers handled 1.86 million cases, mediated in 1.06 million disputes, help notarized 2.75 million legal documents, providing legal consultations to 11.83 million, and avoid or recovered economic losses of 14 billion yuan for the parties involved. The two regulations provide for the establishment, operating mechanism, and management of grassroots legal service agencies, and ensure the qualifications of legal service workers, their rights and responsibilities, as well as methods of management and supervision of their work. Punishments were also included in the regulations which will be imposed on legal service workers who violate rules and discipline. Officials said that the ministry will see to it that local grassroots agencies conduct training programs on the new regulations and shakeup their organizations accordingly. |
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