It was learned from the Standing Committee of Shaanxi Provincial People's Congress that the Shaanxi Provincial Lawyers Regulations (hereinafter referred to as the Regulations) adopted at the 35th meeting of the Standing Committee of the 13th Provincial People's Congress will be implemented.
The regulations clearly stipulate that lawyers and law firms shall perform their legal aid obligations according to law, and shall not refuse to accept legal aid cases assigned by legal aid agencies without justifiable reasons. A law firm shall promptly arrange lawyers to undertake legal aid cases, and provide conditions and convenience for lawyers to handle legal aid cases.
At the same time, if a lawyer practices illegally or causes losses to the parties due to his fault, his law firm shall be liable for compensation. After making compensation, a law firm may claim compensation from a lawyer who has committed intentional or gross negligence.
In order to embody the reform spirit of "simplifying administration and decentralizing power, strengthening supervision and improving services", the Regulations respectively optimize the time limit for judicial administrative departments to issue lawyer's practice certificates and practice licenses for law firms from "ten days" to "seven days".
In order to protect the legitimate rights and interests of defense lawyers in meeting, marking papers and lawyers' investigation and evidence collection, the regulations stipulate that if a defense lawyer requests to meet with a criminal suspect or defendant in custody with a lawyer's practice certificate, a certificate from a law firm, a power of attorney or a letter of legal aid, the detention center shall arrange the meeting in time according to law, and the meeting shall not exceed 48 hours at the latest.
Unless otherwise provided by law, the detention center shall not refuse to arrange a lawyer's meeting, limit the time and frequency of the meeting, attach other conditions or ask the defense lawyer to submit other documents and materials other than those provided by law in disguise. The detention center shall, in accordance with the relevant provisions of the state and this province, strengthen the construction of remote video interview system, establish an appointment platform for lawyers to meet, and facilitate the meeting of defense lawyers by means of online appointment and telephone appointment.
The "Regulations" also stipulate that, from the date when the people's procuratorate examines and prosecutes a case, defense lawyers may consult, extract and copy the case file materials, except those that cannot be made public according to law. Conditional people's procuratorates and people's courts can implement electronic marking and allow burning and downloading materials.