Lawyers doing criminal legal aid work just want a fair deal
In default of any response from the Law Society to the reported comments made by the chief justice ('Chief justice laments rise of greedy lawyers', June 7), I feel the need to counter the impression left by the appalling example you quote.
As anyone who has been involved in a court case will know, preparation is nine-tenths of the battle. What they may not know, however, is that at present all preparation work for criminal legal aid cases is effectively undertaken for free. Hence, although these solicitors may be called a lot of things, greedy should not be one of them.
Those of us engaged in this area believe that to maintain the rule of law we need a system where those prosecuted for criminal offences are entitled to proper publicly funded legal assistance. Indeed, this is guaranteed under the Basic Law. The problem is that the government expects criminal solicitors to subsidise the scheme. Our concern is that all the decent experienced solicitors engaged in criminal legal aid work will opt to work on other cases that pay the bills, pay staff salaries and office rents. They will not continue criminal legal aid work. This is not greed, this is simple economic survival.
In response to our calls for reform of legal aid, including calls for publicly funded representation at police stations, we have been met with, respectively, silence, and a take-it-or-leave-it offer of just over HK$400 per hour. This is less than that paid to unqualified court interpreters (who have no offices to maintain, staff to pay and no legal qualifications).
Granted, this is an improvement on nothing, but it does not provide a realistic and sustainable basis for a publicly funded legal aid system of access to the courts. Asking solicitors to undertake pro bono (free) work for chosen individuals on an occasional basis is one thing, but asking us to subsidise a publicly funded service is quite another.
So while the comments made by the chief justice at the conference on 'Nurturing an Ethical and Viable Legal Profession' may be accurate for the one case quoted, not all of us are abandoning ethical standards for selfish pursuit of economic success.
Some of us are simply asking to be paid, at a proper rate, for our work in providing an essential service within the criminal justice system, so that we can all continue to enjoy the rule of law.
Michael Vidler, solicitor, Wan Chai
