Legal reform
a. The Court should increase the assessed value of young life lost in accidents before they reach earning years . Currently nil or very little estimated value for the future loss of earning or future loss of accommodation of young people deceased in accidents is unfair and inhumane.
b. Legal aid to guarantee process taxation and payment of lawyers’ fee within 12 months. Current dragging up to 3 or 4 years is totally unacceptable ( Increase of labour and resources for legal aid is an urgent need )
c.Judgment should be delivered latest within 6 months. Current delay up to 1 year to 2 odd years is not acceptable. ( Increase of judges to guarantee punctual delivery of judgment is necessary ).
d. Respect for judicial staff ( both for judges and officers of the court m i.e. lawyers ) are equally important. The attitude of judges towards officers of the court should be no less than that acceptable level vice versa . In fact, those who are in power should be extra humble , polite and restrained so as not to create an image of disrespect, cynical criticism, bullying, oppressive, threatening or mocking of junior members or more courteous and conscientious members of the legal profession . These old fashioned self- conceited and unrighteous attitude are not conducive to the procurement of conscientious and righteous lawyers to enjoy acting as officers of the court to help the public. Everyone hopes to work passionately only for jobs that brigh forth to them due dignity and respect from their supervisors and co-workers.
In the old days, government department officials , government doctors and nurses used to put on very arrogant, callous and rude attitude towards the public. Over the past 20 years, such bad culture had changed substantially after general political election and discussion of performance of government officials were allowed and put under public scrutiny .
What is necessary for improving the mindset and attitude of judges is perhaps: just to put them under the public and professional scrutiny , in that lawyers and the public be allowed to comment on the demeanor of the judges and to vote anonymously on the quality of their performance / attitude.
e. The two -tier legal profession system has become more challenging for junior members of the Bar , after the jurisdiction of the District Court has been increased up to HK$ 3 million , meaning most civil cases can be handled by solicitors solely in the District Court without the need to engage counsels’ assistance. Arguably , more direct access for Barristers in cases within the District Court jurisdiction should be allowed to cope with the loss of business to the solicitor profession .
f. Alternatively , barristers should be allowed to work as independent litigation experts with direct access by the public or by solicitors possible. In this way , the Barrister profession is kept independent for the best use by the public . Barristers can also be sufficiently insured just like the solicitors. Barristers can hire their own assistance to do all leg work and paper work . In fact, it is much better for litigation expert to handle the case right from the beginning. Poor preparation often by inexperienced litigation officer often impair the chance of vindication for a genuine victim of injustice.
Currently , the handling of litigation work by non litigation experts at the initial stage or all along is not producing the best quality of legal service for the public.
There is hardly any policy reason why barristers cannot be directly engaged by the public to handle litigation in court when solicitors can do the same.
The way how barristers’ fees are substantially cut down or payment delayed by solicitors or the Legal Aid (due to weaker bargaining power and exhaustive dragging payment tactic ) is producing severe injustice to the members of the Bar. It will be cheaper to the public and fairer to the Barristers to have direct access and better control of prompt payment by the consumer.
g. Limited contingent fees ( such that reasonable fees be taken only upon a winning of the case and/or payment by the other side ) is desirable to allow junior members of the Bar to have more opportunity to practice litigation . Members of the public will also benefit enormously in that they can get conscientious legal representation by litigation experts albeit they may not have enough money to sponsor the whole case initially .
