'Govt May Lower Cap On Legal Aid Cases For Lawyers'

Chief Secretary Matthew Cheung said on Wednesday that the government is reviewing whether legal aid applicants should be allowed to pick their own lawyers, and whether to lower an existing cap to prevent some of them from taking up too many legal aid cases.

Cheung made the comment at a Legco question-and-answer session after some lawmakers asked why only around 20 lawyers took up all 80 judicial review cases last year, when more than 200 eligible counsels were sitting on the Legal Aid Panel.

DAB lawmaker Elizabeth Quat questioned whether the legal aid system had become "an ATM” for lawyers who were exceptionally popular among the applicants.

Business and Professionals Alliance lawmaker Priscilla Leung, who's a barrister herself, also asked if it were possible for the Legal Aid Department to assign cases to lawyers on a rotational basis.

"Will we take reference from public hospitals where patients have no choice [of doctor]?" she asked.

"You see there are no complaints at public hospitals."

In response, the chief secretary said some legal aid applicants prefer to stick with lawyers who had represented them in lower courts.

"They hope that the lawyer... can continue to represent them, just like when you go to see a doctor, you'd hope to go to the one you usually see," he said.

Nevertheless, Cheung said a comprehensive review of the legal aid system is now underway and it will be complete in around four months' time.

He said officials will, among other things, consider lowering the maximum number of legal aid cases each lawyer can take up, in order to achieve a fairer distribution of cases.