Legal aid refers to a system in which legal aid agencies organized by the government provide free legal aid to people in need. A special case refers to a criminal case in which the defendant is blind, deaf or mute, or a minor has not entrusted a defender, or the defendant can be sentenced to death but has not entrusted a defender, and should receive legal aid according to the provisions of Article 34 of the Criminal Procedure Law of People's Republic of China (PRC).
Not all lawyers have the obligation of legal aid. Only lawyers under certain conditions have the obligation of legal aid. The Ministry of Justice and the Supreme People's Court have deployed a pilot project of full coverage of lawyers in criminal cases. So far, more than 2,300 counties (cities, districts) have carried out pilot work, accounting for more than 80% of the total number of county-level administrative regions, and the national defense defense defense rate of criminal lawyers has reached 66%. At the same time, the Ministry of Justice actively promoted the pilot work of lawyer mediation. More than 8,800 lawyers' mediation studios have been established nationwide, more than 55,000 lawyers and mediators have been trained, and more than 300,000 cases have been mediated.
The Ministry of Justice organized a special campaign for lawyers to help the poor, starting with helping the poor according to law, giving full play to the legal service function of lawyers, striving to help the poor with accurate, inclusive, convenient and high-quality legal services, and helping to build a well-off society in an all-round way. The Ministry of Justice encourages lawyers to actively participate in public welfare legal services. In 2020, lawyers throughout the country handled more than 940,000 legal aid cases, and provided public welfare legal services to the people free of charge165438+100,000 times, thus practicing the practice concept of people's lawyers serving the people.