Opinions of the Supreme People's Court and the Ministry of Justice on Strengthening Legal Aid Work for State Compensation
Supreme People's Court, Ministry of Justice
Notice on Issuing the "Opinions on Strengthening Legal Aid Work for State Compensation"
Higher People's Courts and Judicial Bureaus (Departments) of all provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the Central Government; the Military Court of the People's Liberation Army and the Judicial Bureau of the General Political Department; the Production and Construction Corps Branch of the Higher People's Court of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region and the Judicial Bureau of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps:
To further standardize and promote legal aid work in state compensation cases handled by people's courts, the Supreme People's Court and the Ministry of Justice have formulated the "Opinions on Strengthening Legal Aid Work for State Compensation." These are hereby issued to you for implementation.
Supreme People's Court, Ministry of Justice
January 2, 2014
To effectively safeguard the right of disadvantaged groups to claim state compensation in accordance with the law, and to standardize and promote legal aid work in state compensation cases handled by people's courts, the following opinions are put forward in light of the actual circumstances of legal aid work:
I. Enhancing the understanding of the importance of legal aid work for state compensation
Providing legal aid services to disadvantaged groups applying for state compensation in accordance with the law is an important function of legal aid work. In state compensation cases handled by people's courts, citizens applying for state compensation are often vulnerable groups, facing both economic hardship and a lack of legal knowledge, and are in urgent need of legal aid. Strengthening legal aid work for state compensation, ensuring that disadvantaged groups can exercise their right to claim state compensation according to law, is a crucial aspect of adapting to the growing judicial needs of the people, enhancing legal aid services, and improving people's livelihoods in the new era. It is of great significance for achieving social fairness and justice and promoting social harmony and stability. People's courts and judicial administrative organs at all levels must fully recognize the importance of strengthening legal aid work for state compensation, firmly establish a mass perspective, earnestly practice the mass line, further innovate and improve working mechanisms, continuously enhance the capacity and level of legal aid work for state compensation, and strive to ensure that disadvantaged groups feel fairness and justice in every state compensation case.
I'm ready to help translate your Chinese legal content into professional English for the Shenzhen Zhiming Law Firm website. Please provide the Chinese text you'd like me to translate.2. Ensure that eligible individuals in financial difficulty receive timely legal aid for state compensation cases.
People's courts and judicial administrative organs shall publicize through various means the conditions, procedures, and the rights and obligations of compensation claimants for legal aid in state compensation, so that the public may understand knowledge related to legal aid in state compensation, and guide compensation claimants with financial difficulties to apply for legal aid. When accepting a case, a people's court shall inform in writing a citizen applying for state compensation that if he or she has financial difficulties, he or she may apply for legal aid from the legal aid institution in the place where the compensation obligor is located. Legal aid institutions shall give full play to the role of community-level legal aid work stations in answering consultations, forwarding applications, and other aspects, and keep the "12348" legal service hotline open; where conditions permit, legal aid work stations may be established in people's courts to broaden channels for legal aid applications and facilitate citizens seeking legal aid in state compensation. For a citizen's application for legal aid in state compensation, a legal aid institution shall conduct examination in accordance with the law, shorten the time as much as possible within the statutory time limit, and improve work efficiency; for an application for state compensation by a citizen detained without guilt, if the people's court confirms that he or she has no source of income, the compensation claimant may be determined to meet the standard of financial difficulty; if the matter applied for involves statutory emergency or special circumstances, the legal aid institution may provide legal aid first and complete the relevant formalities afterward.
3. Strengthen safeguards for legal aid work in state compensation cases.
The people's courts shall facilitate legal aid personnel in handling legal aid cases involving state compensation. Where legal aid personnel apply to a people's court for investigation and evidence collection, the court shall actively support such applications in accordance with the law; fees for legal aid personnel to reproduce relevant materials shall be waived. When handling state compensation cases, the people's courts shall fully hear the opinions of legal aid personnel and keep them on record; the written decisions, judgments, rulings, and other legal documents issued by the people's courts in state compensation cases shall state the name of the legal aid institution, the names of the legal aid personnel, and information about their affiliated organizations. Administrative organs of justice shall adopt comprehensive measures such as enhancing public recognition, improving incentive and commendation mechanisms, and raising the standards for case-handling subsidies to motivate legal aid personnel to handle legal aid cases involving state compensation, coordinate with relevant organs and entities as needed, and increase support for case-handling work. The people's courts and legal aid institutions shall strengthen coordination in their work, promptly communicate regarding matters such as the designation or replacement of legal aid personnel, changes to the time for hearing opinions, and the termination of legal aid, and mutually notify each other of the progress of case handling. The people's courts and administrative organs of justice shall establish a joint conference system to regularly exchange information on the progress of their work and ensure that relevant work is smoothly connected.
4. Improve the quality and effectiveness of legal aid work in state compensation cases.
Legal aid institutions shall improve case assignment work. Based on the types of state compensation cases and taking into account factors such as the professional expertise of legal aid personnel, the characteristics and preferences of compensation claimants, they shall reasonably determine the handling institutions and personnel. Where conditions permit, the point-selection system for legal aid shall be implemented to effectively ensure case handling quality. They shall guide legal aid personnel to diligently conduct meetings, review case files, investigate and collect evidence, participate in court hearings or cross-examinations, and provide legal services that meet standards in accordance with laws, regulations, and relevant case circumstances, proceeding from the protection of compensation claimants’ interests, and promote the resolution of their lawful and reasonable compensation claims. Presiding judges and legal aid personnel shall, during case handling, focus on clarifying doubts and explaining issues, helping compensation claimants correctly understand the policies and regulations involved in cases, and encouraging compensation claimants to accept judgments and cease litigation. Judicial administrative organs and legal aid institutions shall strengthen case quality management, improve case handling quality supervision and management mechanisms based on the characteristics of state compensation cases, and conduct quality supervision through comprehensive use of case quality assessments, case file inspections and evaluations, and return visits to compensation claimants, with emphasis on strengthening follow-up supervision of major, difficult, and complex cases to promote improved case handling quality. Where people’s courts discover that legal aid personnel have committed illegal acts or harmed the interests of compensation claimants, they shall promptly notify the legal aid institutions of the relevant circumstances and urge legal aid personnel to handle cases in accordance with laws and regulations.
5. Innovating the Mechanism for Extending the Effectiveness of Legal Aid in State Compensation
People's courts and legal aid institutions shall establish a dispute mediation working mechanism, guiding legal aid personnel to choose the most favorable method for resolving disputes for the compensation claimants. For cases with simple facts, clear circumstances, and minor disputes, mediation shall be adopted as much as possible based on the claimant's wishes, striving to achieve case closure and dispute resolution. A diversified dispute resolution mechanism shall be established to guide legal aid personnel in properly handling and resolving disputes according to law, endeavoring to address the reasonable demands of compensation claimants, providing comfort to citizens who have been detained without guilt, and strengthening humanistic care and psychological counseling for compensation claimants by introducing social workers into legal aid work and setting up psychological hotlines, aiming to achieve the unity of legal and social effects. A publicity and guidance mechanism shall be established to increase publicity efforts, fully utilizing newspapers, television, the internet, and other media to widely promote state compensation legal aid work, promptly summarizing and disseminating good experiences and practices emerging from the work, creating a favorable atmosphere for the development of state compensation legal aid, and promoting advanced models and experiences through various forms to further consolidate work achievements.
