Legal aid lawyer stays true to commitment to disadvantaged

"If I were him, what would I do?" this is the question Xu Rong, a Beijing-based lawyer, constantly asked herself during her decade-long career as a legal aid lawyer. Unwaveringly, she always keeps in mind her commitment to the people who turned to her: finding the solutions that are in their best interest.

One day in mid-March, a dozen frustrated people reached Xu at the labor and human resources dispute arbitration committee of Tongzhou district in Beijing, asking her for legal help.

Xu learned from them that they were all employees of a catering company which had shut down in early February due to the COVID-19 outbreak and laid them off shortly afterwards without paying them full wages. Outraged, these people came to the committee to apply for labor arbitration.

After listening to their request, Xu immediately started to write the arbitration application for them while applying for legal aid on behalf of the people with the district's legal center which later determined that they were eligible for legal aid and designated Xu as their lawyer.

Taking into account the demands of both sides, she began trying to settle the dispute through mediation and eventually succeeded in her attempt by leading them to an agreement under which the company paid its former employees the wages in arrears.

In another case handled by Xu, a man had his right hand wounded at work only four days after he was employed by a laundry. 

After paying the medical expense for him, the laundry refused to help him apply for the work-related injury examination and later entirely denied the existence of the labor relationship between them. 

After accepting the case, Xu, designated as the man's legal aid lawyer, embarked on what turned out to be a years-long legal battle for confirmation of the labor relationship and then compensation for his injury. The man and his family burst into tears when they finally got the arbitration result that upheld his claims.

Xu said she always puts herself in others' shoes every time she handles a legal aid case and tries her best to seek justice for disadvantaged people.