(Issued on August 29, 2009 in accordance with Decree No.22 of the People's Government of Guangzhou Municipality, amended for the first time on September 30, 2015 in accordance with Decree No.132 of the People's Government of Guangzhou Municipality, and amended for the second time on April 4, 2019 in accordance with Decree No.163 of the People's Government of Guangzhou Municipality)

　　Article 1     These Measures are formulated in accordance with Regulations on Legal Aids, Regulations of Guangdong Province on Legal Aids and other relevant laws and regulations, on the basis of the actual conditions of the Municipality, and with a view to promoting and standardizing legal aids in this Municipality.

　　Article 2     These Measures shall apply to legal aids in the administrative areas of the Municipality.

　　Article 3     The municipal and district governments shall incorporate legal aids into the national economic and social development plan and include legal aid funds into the annual fiscal budget of the corresponding level to ensure the coordinated development of legal aid cause with the economic and social development.

　　Article 4     The municipal judicial authority shall be responsible for supervising and administering legal aids as well as organizing the implementation of these Measures within the administrative areas of this Municipality.

　　The district judicial authority shall be responsible for supervising and administering legal aids within the administrative areas of the district.

　　The municipal/district legal aid authority shall be responsible for accepting and reviewing legal aid applications within its administrative area, assigning or arranging personnel to provide legal aid services and assisting and supervising legal aid implementation activities.

　　Article 5     The municipal lawyer associations shall assist in legal aids in accordance with its articles of association.

　　A legal aid authority shall support and guide the labor union, the communist youth league, the women's federation, the disabled persons' federation and the committee for aging people services to carry out legal aid activities to safeguard legal rights and interests of specific groups.

　　Article 6     Legal aid funds shall be earmarked for their specific purposes only and shall be subject to the supervision of thefinance authority and the auditing authority.

　　Legal aid funds cover legal aid personnel dispatch fees, office expenses and legal aid service fees. The legal aid service fees include the subsidies for handling legal aid matters and the recurrent special funds for the publicity, training, translation, appraisal and case handling quality assessment.

　　Subsidies for handling legal aid matters shall be paid faithfully and strictly in accordance with the subsidy standard of the Municipality.

　　Article 7     November 9 is the Legal Aid Publicity Day of the Municipality.

　　The municipal and district people's governments and their judicial authorities as well as legal aid authority shall organize legal aid publicity activities on the Legal Aid Publicity Day.

　　Article 8     The municipal judicial authority shall establish a unified legal aid service information system to manage the legal aid services on a whole­process, dynamic and informationized basis.

　　The municipal/district judicial authority shall establish a sound notification mechanism for legal aids, so as to timely notify the people's courts, the people's procuratorates and public security organs at the corresponding level about receiving and handling criminal legal aid cases and legal aid lawyers on duty.

　　The municipal legal aid authority shall formulate a unified guideline for the application of legal aids in the Municipality, indicating the legal aid authority’s address, and contact information as well as the service scope, service contents, service approaches, application qualifications, application procedures and the lists of all required documents, and announce it to the public.

　　Article 9     Enterprises, other social organizations and individuals shall be encouraged to grant funds to support legal aids in the form of donations.

　　Legal aid foundations duly established according to law may accept donations from enterprises, other social organizations and individuals. Legal aid foundations shall use the donated funds in accordance with their articles of association, disclose the use of donated funds to the public and be subject to the supervision of the finance authority, the auditing authority, etc.

　　Article 10   Citizens encountering with legal problems or suffering from infringement of legal rights and interests may apply for legal aid in the Municipality under the following circumstances:

　　(1) The legal aid matters applied are heard or handled in the Municipality or the legal aid matters applied by residents with household registration in the Municipality are heard or handled outside the Municipality;

　　(2) The citizens are those who meet the legal aid standards for economically disadvantaged people as stipulated in the first paragraph of Article 11 herein or those who do not need to submit supporting documents to prove their economical disadvantages as stipulated in the Article 12 herein.

　　Article 11    If the per capita monthly income of the legal aid applicant and his/her family members living together within 12 months before the application date is lower than the local minimum wage standard in the current month, such an applicant may be identified as an economically disadvantaged person. However, where a higher legal standard is prescribed in a law, regulation or any other provision for economically disadvantaged people than the aforesaid provision, the law, regulation or provision shall prevail.

　　A legal aid authority shall verify the applicant's family economic status through the government information sharing platform. Where such verification fails, the legal aid authority may entrust verification agencies to verify applications according to relevant regulations of the Municipality on the verification of the household economic status of residents.

　　Article 12   The following legal aid applicants are not required to provide supporting documents to prove their economical disadvantages but shall provide their identity documents only:

　　(1) The economically disadvantaged people, people who have acted bravely for just causes and servicemen and their family members as respectively stipulated in Articles 21, 23 and 24 of the Regulations of Guangdong Province on Legal Aids;

　　(2) The labors involved in mass labor disputes;

　　(3) The elderly people claiming for rights against domestic violence, abuse and abandonment;

　　(4) Applicants for the withdrawal of custody;

　　(5) The citizens applying for state compensation in accordance with Clauses (1), (2) and (3) of Article 17 of the State Compensation Law of the People's Republic of China;

　　(6) Severely disabled people, multiple disabled people, disabled elderly people, orphans and disabled children;

　　(7) The sergeants and their family members quartered at the Municipality or having registered in the Municipality before the enlistment;

　　(8) The officers on active service below the battalion level;

　　(9) The active or retired servicemen/servicewomen with war­related/ or work­related physical disabilities;

　　(10)      The auxiliary policemen/policewomen with work­related physical disabilities;

　　(11) The spouses, parents, children and other close relatives of legal dependency of the auxiliary policemen/policewomen who have died at work or died of some diseases.

　　Criminal suspects, defendants or claimants applying for legal aid during investigation, review, prosecution, trial, appeal or retrial are not required to submit supporting documents to prove their economical disadvantages.

　　Article 13   Citizens may apply for legal aid by going to the legal aid authority in person, via the legal aid service information system, by post or through the forwarding of the office of justice, the general labor union, the communist youth league, the women's federation, the disabled persons' federation, the working committee for aging people or other organizations.

　　Any of the organizations that forward an application shall serve the application documents to the legal aid authority with jurisdiction within 2 working days upon the receipt of the application.

　　Where it is unfeasible for a citizen to apply for legal aids in accordance with the provisions of the first paragraph of this article, the legal aid authority may send a staff member to receive the application documents therefrom.

　　Article 14   A legal aid authority shall accept the application for legal aids in accordance with the provisions of Articles 27 and 28 of the Regulations of Guangdong Province on Legal Aids. The application for the legal aid for a case within the jurisdiction of a district arbitration institutions on labor and personnel dispute shall be accepted by the district legal aid authority, while the application for the legal aid for a case within the jurisdiction of the municipal arbitration institution on labor and personnel dispute and other arbitration cases shall be accepted by the municipal legal aid authority.

　　The legal aid authority shall process, in accordance with the provisions of Article 29 of the Regulations of Guangdong Province on Legal Aid, the application for the legal aid that is not within its scope of acceptance; provided that the application is submitted by the applicant in person and is within the scope of acceptance of any other legal aid authority in the Municipality, the legal aid authority shall assist the applicant in applying via the legal aid service information system.

　　Article 15   Applications submitted by applicants in person, by post or through the forwarding of organizations shall be handled by the legal aid authority in accordance with the relevant provisions of the Regulations of Guangdong Province on Legal Aid. Furthermore, for the applications submitted through the forwarding of organizations, the legal aid authority shall also notify the said organizations in writing of the decision on whether to grant legal aid.

　　Where an application is submitted through the legal aid service information system, the legal aid authority shall conduct the pre­screening within 3 working days upon the receipt of the application materials and handle it according to the following provisions:

　　(1) Notify the applicant to submit original application documents to the legal aid authority for verification within 5 working days if the application meets the requirements for obtaining a legal aid;

　　(2) Explain to the applicant the reason for refusal if the application does not meet the requirements for obtaining a legal aid; or

　　(3) Notify the applicant to hand over all reasonably required materials at one time if his or her application documents required are not adequate.

　　Where the legal aid applicant provides the original application materials in accordance with the preceding Subparagraph 1, the legal aid authority shall, after verification, decide whether to grant legal aid on the spot and serve the decision instrument. Where original application materials are not provided in time, it shall be deemed as the cancellation of the application.

　　The applicant, if having any objection to the prescreening result of the legal aid authority, may file a review application with the legal aid authority within 7 days upon the receipt of the result.

　　Article 16   The municipal legal aid authority shall establish a unified roster of standing legal aid workers throughout the Municipality and manage such workers on a professional, informationized and dynamic basis to ensure the efficiency and quality of legal aid services.

　　The roster of standing legal aid workers shall specify the workers’ names, genders, ages, practice time, professional expertise, language expertise and assessment results on their legal aid service efficiency and quality, etc.

　　Lawyers may join the roster through the legal aid service information system provided that they voluntarily accept the management and assignment of the legal aid authority and undertake legal aid matters.

　　The legal aid authority shall remove from the roster any and all lawyers and refuse their applications to join in the next 12 months under any of the following circumstances:

　　(1) The lawyer has not been assigned with any case by any legal aid authority with less than 6 times of applications for undertaking legal aid matters within one year; or

　　(2) The assessment result on handling quality of the cases the lawyer has undertaken is unqualified.

　　Article 17   Any person in the need of legal aid may choose at his/her own discretion the legal aid workers in the roster of standing legal aid workers. Where such a person needs help, the legal aid authority shall provide guidance and assistance.

　　Article 18   Where the person in the need of legal aid does not choose any legal aid worker or the chosen legal aid worker cannot accept the assignment for any reason, the legal aid authority shall issue a recruit notice via the legal aid service information system and send the notice to any and all lawyers with corresponding expertise in the roster of standing legal aid workers.

　　Lawyers may apply for the assignment within the prescribed time limit in accordance with the requirements of the recruit notice.

　　Where there are three or more applicants who meet the requirements of the recruit notice, the legal aid authority shall determine the legal aid worker by means of random selection online.

　　Under any of the following circumstances, the legal aid authority shall assign legal aid worker according to relevant provisions:

　　(1) There are less than three applicants who meet the requirements of the recruit notice;

　　(2) The determined legal aid lawyer is unable to undertake the legal aid matters for any reason; or

　　(3) Legal aid matters are urgent or complicated.

　　The legal aid authority shall publicize the assignment of legal aid worker, indicating the legal aid case No., the name of the legal aid worker and the law firm the legal aid worker works for.

　　Article 19   A legal aid authority may purchase legal aid services from law firms under any of the following circumstances:

　　(1) The legal aid lawyer of the day is assigned to the people's court, the people's procuratorate, or the detention center; or

　　(2) The legal aid lawyer is assigned to legal aid workstations to provide legal advice.

　　A legal aid authority may purchase social work services and psychological counseling services from social work service agencies and medical institutions as needed.

　　Article 20   For any of the following legal aid matters, a legal aid authority may, at its own cost and expense, entrust a non­local legal aid authority to assign or arrange legal aid workers to handle it:

　　(1) The legal aid matter of the legal aid service recipient registered in the Municipality is heard or handled outside the Municipality; or

　　(2) The legal aid matter, though heard or handled in the Municipality, needs investigation and evidence collection outside the Municipality.

　　Article 21   Any institution or individual may, if aware of any already provided legal aid that should not have been provided due to the recipient's disqualification for legal aid service, report it to the legal aid authority. If it is found to be true, the legal aid authority shall decide to terminate the legal aid service and inform the service recipient.

　　Article 22   The legal aid authority shall examine the handling of legal aid matters and pay the subsidies directly to the legal aid worker in accordance with the relevant provisions on subsidies for legal aid matters within 30 days upon the receipt of the case closing documents for filing.

　　Where the legal aid is terminated or the legal aid worker is replaced before his or her commencement of substantive work, the legal aid authority shall not pay the subsidy. If the substantive work has been carried out, the legal aid authority shall pay the subsidy according to his or her actual workload.

　　Article 23   A municipal legal aid authority shall, on an annual basis, carry out the case handling quality assessment on legal aid cases by randomly selecting 10% cases being complained by service recipients and other cases from the cases that were closed in the previous year. Where the legal aid worker applies for participation in the assessment since all the legal aid cases closed by him or her in the previous year have not been selected for the assessment, the municipal legal aid authority shall randomly select one of the legal aid cases closed by him or her for assessment.

　　The specific assessment measures and criteria shall be formulated separately by the municipal administrative department of justice.

　　Article 24   The municipal legal aid authority shall copy the results of handling quality assessment on legal aid cases to the municipal lawyer association and announce such results to the public.

　　The municipal administrative department of justice should publicly praise the lawyers with excellent assessment results and the law firms they work for.

　　Where a lawyer fails in the assessment, the legal aid authority may refuse to assign him or her with any legal aid matters within a certain time limit.

　　Where the government department intends to purchase legal aid services, the purchaser under the same conditions shall give priority to law firms that have been praised before.

　　Article 25Any and all service recipients that do not conform to relevant requirements but have obtained legal aid services by deception shall pay legal service fees to the legal aid authority. If it constitutes a crime, such service recipients shall be investigated for criminal liabilities according to law.

　　Article 26   The judicial administrative department, legal aid authority and its staff if found guilty of illegal acts during the performance of their legal aid duties shall be subject to punishment by of competent authorities in accordance with relevant laws and regulations.

　　Article 27   The term “legal aid authority” herein refers to any and all specialized institutions determined by the municipal/district judicial authority according to law to organize and implement legal aids.

　　The term “mass labor dispute case” herein refers to any labor dispute litigation or non­litigation case filed by more than 10 applicants based on a same or similar matter of fact or law.

　　Article 28   These Measures shall become effective as of September 1, 2019.