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Consultation Paper  on Legal Aid Policy

11 March, 1998  

Secretary  
Working Group on Legal Aid Policy Review  
c/o Administration Wing  
Chief Secretary for Administration's Office  
12/F, Central Government Office (West Wing)  
Lower Albert Road  
Central, HK  

Dear Sir  

CONSULTATION PAPER ON LEGAL AID POLICY  

We are writing with our comments on the above document.  

Our main comment is that the financial eligibility limits for legal aid schemes, ie HK$169,700 for the standard scheme and HK$471,600 for the supplementary scheme are too low. This has the effect of excluding all but the relatively poor from the scope of legal aid. Given that legal services are extremely expensive in Hong Kong, this means that the law becomes the preserve of the poor and the rich. The middling sectors of our society are effectively barred from using legal services. This is a highly unsatisfactory state of affairs.  

We accept that there must be financial eligibility limits, and that these cannot be too high without the cost to the public purse becoming unreasonable. However, we feel that the limits could be set at, say double their current levels.  

As to enhancing the cost-effectiveness of legal aid services, we believe that it would be important to review the structure and processes of the legal system as a whole. This is obviously beyond the scope of the present exercise, however, we hope that opportunity will be found for such a fundamental review in due course. In this regard we enclose for your reference a copy of a detailed submission that we made on the 1995 consultation on legal services. Our submission contains many recommendations for improving the overall cost-effectiveness of the legal system as a whole.  

I hope that the above is helpful.  

Yours faithfully  

Alan LUNG Ka-lun  
Chairman