“Legal Support Law” Passed. The government will appropriate 10 billion NT dollars for aiding poor citizens to proceed with litigation.

The Legislative Yuan passed the third reading of “Draft of Legal Support Law” yesterday. In the future, the government will appropriate 10 billion NT dollars for the establishment of “Judicial Legal Support Foundation” with a view to helping poor citizens proceed with litigation. Courts of every instance, prosecutor’s offices, attorneys’ union are obligated to aid the practice of legal support so as to fulfill the aim of constitution, which equally protects the litigation rights of every citizen.

 

The Law provides 64 articles, the focus of which is to broaden the scope of legal support in judiciary, including the following: to subsume the agency or defense of civil, criminal, administrative, and arbitration legal cases, to aid such legal affairs as reconciliation, compromise, legal consultation, legal documents drafting and so on. In addition, the Law also stipulates that attorneys, courts, prosecutor’s offices are obligated to practice the legal support. After the legal support system is in a proper course, the public defender systems will be abolished step by step.

 

Besides, the Law also provides that the legal support system is applicable to any citizens legally residing in Taiwan. As to the subjects that the Law is applicable to, as long as citizens of low-income households fit in with the description stipulated in the Law of Public Assistance (社會救助法), citizens of poverty or citizens of mental handicap are incapable of making statements in the trial, citizens are sentenced to the lightest principal punishment, that is, imprisonment of more than three years, and citizens are in the first trial under the jurisdiction of the High Court, all of them could ask for legal support. In respective of the fees paid to the attorneys who practice the legal support, they will be paid by the Foundation so as to increase attorneys’ participation motives and willingness. Furthermore, attorneys cannot reject practicing legal support without justified reasons; otherwise, they will be considered violating the attorneys’ ethics. Attorneys who is involved in serious violation will be transferred to Attorneys’ Discipline Committee (律師懲戒委員會) by the Foundation to have them punished subject to the Attorneys’ Law (律師法). (2003.12)

CYJ/WYL