Ministry of Justice standardizes civil and administrative legal aid services

The Ministry of Justice recently released rules for civil and administrative legal aid services to provide people in need with standardized services and raise their sense of gain.

The rules specify definitions of civil and administrative legal aid, institutions responsible for providing the aid, personnel responsible for handling specific matters as well as recipients of legal aid.

Under the rules, civil and administrative legal aid refers to a legal security system where employees of legal aid institutions or organizations designated by judicial administrative authorities provide qualified citizens with such services as legal counseling and acting as their agents in civil and administrative cases, at no charge.

The institutions responsible for providing the aid include legal aid institutions, local judicial offices, law firms, grassroots-level legal service offices and other social organizations.

The people responsible for handling specific matters include employees of legal aid institutions, lawyers, grassroots-level legal service workers, employees of other social organizations and legal aid volunteers.

According to the rules, legal aid recipients include people who file their legal aid applications along with the necessary certificates and obtain the approval of legal aid institutions before being eligible for those services, and those receiving legal counseling services which are exempt from review.

The rules also impose detailed requirements on civil and administrative legal aid services in order to ensure service quality.

The rules were effective nationwide upon their release.