THE Attorney-General, Jeremy Mathews, admitted that a deputy director of the Legal Aid Department was the approving officer for 11 cases briefed out to her husband, a junior barrister in private practice.
In response to a question from independent legislator Emily Lau Wai-hing, Mr Mathews stressed that case officers made the recommendation on handing out assignments.
It emerged on June 21 last month that the barrister, Rodney Pritchard, had been assigned 17 cases by the Legal Aid Department from January 1994 to May 1995. And the fees for 11 of these cases had been settled, involving a total of more than $800,000.
His wife is the deputy director of the Legal Aid Department Dorothy Pritchard.
Mr Mathews added that, in the Legal Aid Department, all professional officers on first appointment were required to declare the names of any private practitioners on the Legal Aid Panel with whom they had a close personal relationship.
Elsie Tu asked how many lawyers in private practice on the Government's briefing out list were not assigned to handle any briefed out cases.
