Vice-minister of justice attends meeting on further deepening pilot work on full coverage of lawyers' defense in criminal cases

A meeting on further deepening pilot work on the full coverage of lawyers' defense in criminal cases was jointly held by the Supreme People's Court, the Supreme People's Procuratorate, the Ministry of Public Security, and the Ministry of Justice, on Nov 18. 

Vice-Minister of Justice Xiong Xuanguo attended the meeting and delivered a speech.

The meeting pointed out that the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) made important plans for exercising law-based governance on all fronts and advancing the rule of law in China, charting the course for the reform of the criminal justice system.

Deepening the pilot work on the full coverage of lawyers' defense in criminal cases is a specific measure and practical action for the judicial system to study and implement the guiding principles of the 20th CPC National Congress.  It is a great achievement of China in promoting the legal guarantee of human rights and demonstrating judicial civilization in the new era, which is of great significance in social justice.

The meeting stressed that efforts should be made to actively and steadily advance the pilot work in the prosecution stage on the basis of consolidating the pilot work in the trial stage, reasonably determine the pilot regions and case scope, and promote substantive outcomes of duty lawyers' legal aid.

Measures should be taken to strengthen the protection of lawyers' practicing rights, optimize such new methods as online appointments, remote video meetings and online access to case files, in a bid to meet the practical needs. 

Over 90 percent of county-level regions in China have carried out the pilot work since the launch of the full coverage of lawyers' defense in criminal cases in the trail stage in 2017.

The rate of lawyers' defense and legal aid of duty lawyers in the trial stage of criminal cases has reached 81.5 percent, achieving good political, legal and social results.