"Legal Daily" reporter interviewed courts and judicial administrative organs in Beijing, Shanghai, Zhejiang, Henan and other places today, and learned that the pilot units are based on local conditions and constantly innovate working measures in promoting the full coverage of lawyers' defense in criminal cases. The number of criminal legal aid cases has greatly increased, and the defense rate of lawyers in criminal cases has greatly improved, which has achieved good legal and social effects.
Criminal legal aid cases have increased significantly.
"Nie was gathered to participate in the crime, which only played the role of lookout and didn't get the money. If he plays a secondary role in the crime of * * *, he should be recognized as an accessory. "
165438+1October 13. The defendant Nie Mou's case of damaging power equipment was heard in the People's Court of Longwan District, Wenzhou City, Zhejiang Province. Faced with the prosecutor's sentencing suggestion of 3 to 4 years' imprisonment, legal aid lawyers argued and put forward three defense opinions. Finally, the Longwan District Court adopted the lawyer's advice, mitigated the punishment on Nie and sentenced him to fixed-term imprisonment of 1 year.
Nie got lawyer's defense service, which benefited from the full coverage of lawyer's defense in Wenzhou criminal cases.
It is understood that Zhejiang Province has chosen Hangzhou, Ningbo and Wenzhou as pilot areas to carry out full coverage of lawyers' defense in criminal cases. 1Since October, 1 1, the three cities * * * have accepted criminal cases of legal aid 1887, among which 605 cases have been asked to expand the scope of criminal defense in the pilot, and legal aid has been provided for cases applying summary procedures and quick procedures 1 16 person-times.
Before 20 16, the defense rate of lawyers in criminal cases in Henan province was less than 30%. In 20 16, the Justice Department of Henan Province selected 3 1 county (city, district) to carry out the pilot work of full coverage of lawyers' defense in criminal cases. After the promulgation of the Measures, seven provinces and cities were added as pilot areas in Henan. At present, the average defense rate of lawyers in the trial stage of criminal cases in the pilot areas is 65%, and that in hua county and Fangcheng counties is 1.000%.
Zhou Jisheng, a member of the party group and inspector of the Henan Provincial Department of Justice, said that the growth rate of criminal legal aid cases was significantly higher than other types of cases. From 1 to this year's 1 1, Henan Province * * * accepted 33,000 criminal legal aid cases, a year-on-year increase of 39%. In the six years from 20 1 1 to now, the number of criminal legal aid cases in Henan has increased by 343% and 57% annually.
Unlike Zhejiang and Henan, which chose pilot cities and counties, Beijing and Shanghai did not designate pilot units first, but carried out pilot projects throughout the city. Since the beginning of this year, Shanghai * * * has handled 1.9 1 10,000 criminal legal aid cases, an increase of 1 12.24% year-on-year.
Liu Jianhua, a member of the party group and inspector of the Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Justice, said that the Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Justice has effectively strengthened communication and coordination with the Shanghai Higher People's Court and jointly issued the Detailed Rules for the Implementation of the Pilot Work of Full Coverage of Lawyers' Defence in Criminal Cases. On this basis, the work tasks were further refined, and the pilot work was included in the focus and assessment indicators of legal aid in 20 18 to ensure the effectiveness.
Facilitate the protection of lawyers' right to defense
It is understood that in order to protect lawyers' right to defense, all localities require the people's courts to undertake the convenience for judges to provide pre-trial documents for assisting lawyers. If the defense opinions put forward by lawyers according to law are not adopted, the reasons shall be explained in the judgment documents.
Ma Xianzhao, director of the research office of the Higher People's Court of Henan Province, said that the Henan court provides convenience for lawyers to consult, extract and copy the case files, allows multiple papers to be read, and exempts legal aid lawyers from the obligation to copy the necessary case files; Establish a special channel for lawyers to participate in litigation, and treat them equally with prosecutors who perform their duties in court.
Huang, vice president of the Shanghai Higher People's Court, said that courts at all levels in Shanghai have vigorously promoted the pilot work of full coverage, constantly improved various working mechanisms and improved the convenience of assisting lawyers. For example, it covers the connection mechanism before, during and after the trial, the judicial openness mechanism such as online scheduling and online marking, and the special statistics, analysis and feedback mechanism of legal aid cases to ensure the defense quality and trial quality of legal aid cases.
For example, Chen Weiqiang, deputy inspector of the Zhejiang Provincial Department of Justice and director of the Legal Aid Center, said that a fraud case handled in Lin 'an District of Hangzhou involved the defendant 120 people. Lin 'an District People's Court, according to the requirements of full coverage of lawyers' defense in criminal cases, notified the District Legal Aid Center to assign lawyers to provide defense. Due to the large number of people involved in the case, Lin 'an arranged 70 lawyers to participate in the defense, and the other 50 were coordinated by the municipal legal aid center, ensuring the effective supply of lawyer resources. The two-level legal aid institutions in Zhejiang Experimental Zone set up a criminal legal aid lawyer resource pool, and the municipal legal aid center and the lawyers association co-ordinate the allocation of lawyer resources to provide protection for the full coverage of lawyers' defense in criminal cases.
It is understood that courts at all levels in Shanghai have established a working mechanism of entrusted transfer. For defendants who are detained or have difficulties in applying for assistance by themselves, a one-stop application mode for assistance transferred by the court shall be adopted. Within 24 hours after receiving the defendant's application for legal aid, inform the legal aid institution to appoint a lawyer by fax, telephone, etc., and then forward the application in writing to realize timely and seamless docking with the legal aid institution.
In terms of funding guarantee, Zhejiang and Henan explored the establishment of a mechanism for the government to purchase legal services, and established a multi-level funding guarantee system to ensure that the pilot work of full coverage of lawyers' defense in criminal cases can be met.
In addition, Zhejiang Legal Aid Foundation will be established to provide financial support for legal aid. Henan actively explores specific ways to share legal aid expenses with local financial departments, and implements legal aid expenses sharing for crimes involving black gangs, violence, terrorism, drugs, finance and duty crimes, and explores new ways to guarantee criminal legal aid funds.
Strengthen supervision to ensure the "quantity and quality" of Shuang Sheng.
Promoting the full coverage of lawyers' defense is not only to improve the defense rate of lawyers in criminal proceedings, but also to solve the "quantity" problem of lawyers' defense, and more importantly, to solve the "quality" problem of lawyers' defense.
Chen Weiqiang told reporters that the Zhejiang Provincial Department of Justice asked for the assignment of legal aid. According to the difficulty of the case, the lawyer's professional expertise and years of practice, combined with the wishes of the recipient and other factors, assign lawyers with corresponding majors and qualifications to undertake it. Such as juvenile criminal cases, assign lawyers familiar with the physical and mental characteristics of minors to undertake.
Xu Jianwei, president of the Second Criminal Court of Wenzhou Intermediate People's Court, said that Wenzhou Intermediate People's Court, together with the Municipal Procuratorate, Public Security Bureau, Judicial Bureau and Lawyers Association, issued opinions to clarify the qualification of warehousing lawyers. Only those who are proficient in criminal defense and enthusiastic about legal aid have not been punished for practicing or investigated for illegal practice. He has obtained the lawyer's practice certificate 10 for more than 0 years and engaged in criminal defense for more than 5 years. During their practice, they handled more than 40 criminal cases, with an average of 10 cases per year.
In addition, the warehousing lawyer must sign a performance bond to ensure that he performs his duties of handling legal aid criminal cases according to law. All criminal cases handled after accepting the assignment shall be subject to the annual assessment of case quality organized by the Municipal Legal Aid Center. Lawyers who refuse to be assigned without justifiable reasons and fail to meet, read papers and appear in court according to law shall be removed from the list after verification.
The Department of Justice of Henan Province requires legal aid institutions to strengthen case quality supervision, strengthen audit, return visit and consultation, pay attention to the combination before, during and after the event, and take proactive risk control measures to continuously improve the quality of criminal legal aid cases.
Some courts in Shanghai have established legal aid supervision mechanisms, such as the "one case, one evaluation" trial conclusion supervision mechanism of Pudong District People's Court, which comprehensively evaluates the work attitude, professional level and performance of legal aid lawyers in each legal aid case, and timely feeds back the above information to the District Judicial Bureau and the Legal Aid Center to ensure the quality of legal aid work and prevent it from going through the motions and becoming a mere formality.
"It depends not only on the defense rate, but also on whether the work of defense lawyers has achieved the original intention of legal aid. Therefore, we suggest that while providing legal aid to defendants in need in time, we should also strengthen quality control to ensure that legal aid achieves the expected results. " Liu Jianhua said.