Beijing notarial institutions introduce measures to improve pro bono legal services

Under the guidance of Beijing's judicial department, notarial institutions in the city have fully practiced the people-centered concept in their services in recent years by constantly improving pro bono notarial services, further expanding service scopes and upgrading service quality and efficiency, in a bid to actively fulfill their social responsibility.

In 2022, the city's institutions have handled over 53,800 cases of notarization, a year-on-year increase of 5.5 percent and accounting for 11.8 percent of the city's total notarial business.

To provide more effective and targeted pro bono notarial services, the city's judicial department has guided the Beijing Notary Association to introduce related administrative measures, specifying 12 items eligible for pro bono notarial services. These measures stipulated that notarial institutions in the city should conduct a least two thematic events on pro bono services, and each notary should handle at least 20 related cases each year.

Since the beginning of 2022, the city's notarial institutions have cut or exempted service fees for 3,543 cases, among which 2,112 wills were notarized for free for the elderly of 70 years old and above. They have provided notarial services on weekends, bringing convenience to more than 33,840 people, and handled 20,157 notarial matters via the "one-stop online service platform" as well as 45,618 matters involving cross-provincial notarization of diploma, degree, driving licenses, and tax documents.

Furthermore, to support the capital's high-quality economic and social development, the notarial institutions have handled a total of 14,528 matters for government key projects and reduced or exempted fees for 1,285 cases involving disaster relief and rescue, environmental protection and rural affairs, and successfully resolved 5,805 disputes during the notarizing process.

They also carried out legal publicity activities and provided notarial consultations for 226,869 people, in a bid to facilitate the city’s law-based governance.