Ministry of Justice commits to people-oriented legal services

The Ministry of Justice stressed that people's satisfaction should be judicial administrators' primary goal and fundamental evaluation criteria and great endeavors are needed to provide people with high-quality and efficient legal services, according to a symposium of judicial departments and administrations held on July 20 in Chengdu, Southwest China's Sichuan province. 

Cancellation of unnecessary certifications, lawyers' further participation in public interest legal services, and strengthened cooperation with procuratorates in public interest anti-pollution litigation, these are some of the efforts made the Ministry of Justice in the first half of this year to make people's lives easier.

Over 13,000 unnecessary certifications been abolished 

The Ministry has issued a circular on clearance of certificates and has set up pilots for the implementation of a certificate information sharing system. In the first half of 2019, a total of 1,300 clearance complaints were received, 1,186 of which were handled by local responsible authorities and departments.

A photo shows a recent symposium on census and examination of migrant worker's labor contracts. 

Online green channel for migrant workers

The Ministry has opened up an online green channel for migrant workers who need assistance for get back wages in arrears. With the issuance of a document on judicial work in recovering unpaid wages of migrant workers, the Ministry has also launched in-depth censuses and investigations of migrant worker's labor contracts.  

Specified time that lawyers devote to public interest legal services each year

The Ministry has also specified the length of time that lawyers devote to public interest legal services each year. To give full play to the lawyers' role, the Ministry has stipulated opinions on the promotion of lawyers' involvement in public interest legal services and pushed nationwide application of full-coverage by lawyers in defending criminal cases and conduction of mediation, as well as professional evaluation of lawyers. Work has been done to accelerate the development of foreign-related legal services and involve more Chinese lawyers in major foreign-related economic and trade activities.

The legal aid center in Yuyao, Zhejiang province provides home legal service for elderly women.

Quality of legal aid services improved

The quality of legal aid services has been improved. The Ministry has studied and enhanced the duty lawyer system and has published a national standard for legal services for criminal cases. With joint efforts with the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry has also issued guidance on legal service subsidy standards to motivate legal service providers. An exploration of the scope of legal services is also made to involve eligible veterans in the assistance system.

Launched 58 identification institutions that charge no fees before the procuratorial public interest litigation

At the same time, the Ministry has launched 58 identification institutions that charge no fees before the procuratorial public interest litigation. Together with the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, the Supreme People’s Court and the Supreme People’s Procuratorate, it has published a series of stipulations on the role of the rule of law in governing pollution.