Legal aid plays indispensable role in China’s battle against poverty

Duan was a janitor at a township hotel in the southwestern province of Yunnan before being abruptly laid off in April by the hotel which has remained shut down since the COVID-19 outbreak in late January.

Thinking that his rights were infringed by the hotel, Duan, a villager on the record of the local impoverished population, turned to the local legal aid center for help.

Following the guidelines of the Ministry of Justice and Yunnan's judicial department on legal aid serving poverty alleviation, the staff of the center promptly accepted Duan's application and designated a lawyer for him without first examining his financial condition.

"Legal aid upheld justice for me as a registered poor villager, making me feel very warm," said Duan who applauded the local legal aid service for its high quality and efficiency.

Duan's story is the epitome of the effort of China's judicial administrative system to contribute legal aid services to the nation's battle against poverty.

Extending the scope of legal aid

"It is unexpected that legal aid can help to alleviate poverty," said three sisters from one family in the western province of Qinghai. 

In 2014, a year after their only brother passed away, the three sisters, who had moved out of their hometown due to their marriages long ago, found an astonishing fact: the piece of meadow owned by their family had been covertly sold by two other villagers without their consent.

After five years of frustrating efforts, the sisters finally saw a turnaround in their case after the local legal aid center stepped in and twice dispatched lawyers to help them during the court proceedings.

As a result, the sisters not only regained their meadow but also received compensation in cash, which deeply moved them.

"Meadow-related disputes are quite complicated and common. The resolution of such disputes is a key part of our poverty alleviation effort in the pasturing area," said Chen Fahu, head of Qinghai's public legal service authority.

According to Chen, the province has extended its legal aid service to areas that are closely related to people’s livelihoods such as labor security, family affairs and meadow-related disputes, and further lowered the threshold for applying for the service.

It has also waived the financial condition examination for disadvantaged groups including low-income families, the disabled without stable income and migrant workers in an effort to enhance legal support for poverty alleviation.

As with Qinghai, provinces like Shaanxi and Henan have also take similar steps to support their impoverished population with legal aid services.

Improving the service 

Shuai was a cleaner at a company based in the eastern province of Jiangxi before his left leg was severely injured at the company's warehouse one day in January, handicapping him since then.

After failing to reach a compensation agreement with the company, Shuai, a registered poor resident who has a deaf wife, went to the local legal aid center along with the head of his village.

Within 10 minutes, the center went through the required procedure and designated a lawyer for him under its green channel service model, greatly reassuring him.

In recent years, Jiangxi has been constantly improving its legal aid service in order to better serve impoverished people.

The province's judicial department has issued special cards to needy people, with which they can be spared the financial condition examination when applying for legal aid.

It also set up mobile legal aid stations to offer circuit services in impoverished areas for the convenience of local people.

Meanwhile, provinces including Henan and Hunan have been making efforts to strengthen their online service capability, further integrating their phone, website and smart phone-based approaches.

Receiving praise

One day in January, a group of migrant workers came to a legal aid center in the city of Ganzhou in Jiangxi, requesting the center to help them get their wages in arrears. 

Immediately after learning the facts, the center began handling the case under their green channel service model and designated a lawyer for the workers on the same day.

Considering that the Chinese New Year was around the corner, the designated lawyer convened a meeting of all the parties involved, trying to resolve the issue through mediation. Meanwhile, he also went to the construction site to collect evidence and made efforts to raise the needed money.

As a result of the lawyer's intense effort, the workers and the employer reached an agreement only four days after approaching the legal aid center with all of them being paid in full.

Since 2017, legal aid centers across Jiangxi have handled more than 126,000 cases, helping 130,000 individuals recover or avoid a total economic loss of 1.8 billion yuan ($252 million). Their diligent work has earned them widespread praise from the public.

According to the China Legal Aid Foundation, last year, 115 lawyers and 104 college students and grassroots legal workers volunteered to provide legal aid services in 13 central and western provincial-level regions under a program aimed at eliminating poverty with legal aid.

As of this May, volunteers under the program have handled 3,536 cases, provided legal consultations for 52,491 individuals, given 1,485 legal publicity lectures, resolved 950 disputes and conflicts, and directly benefited 4,020 individuals.