Your rights under the Duty Lawyer Scheme

If you have been charged with a criminal offense in the magistrate's court and granted police bail, you will have to appear at short notice in front of a magistrate.

In this scenario, you can use the Duty Lawyer Scheme.

The lawyers assigned to the scheme are competent but you are advised to arrive early to register as Court No 1, where fresh cases are heard, is very busy, especially as crime rates are increasing.

The duty lawyer can apply for bail for you if you are remanded in custody or extend bail if you are already out on police bail.

Solicitors acting in criminal cases are required under the Law Society Rules to draw up a retainer letter to comply with Rule 5D. The reasons are historical.

In the old days, there were a lot of clerks running solicitors' firms and taking commissions - which is not allowed - or overcharging clients.

The Law Society had to step in and pass these rules to prevent abuse.

Today, the practice has largely been stamped out and in a criminal litigation case a law firm has to:

"(a) As soon as practicable and not more than seven days after receiving instructions the firm shall confirm by letter to the client:

(i) The instructions given by the client;

(ii) The services to be provided by the firm;

(iii) The name of the solicitor in charge of the matter;

(iv) The fee to be charged or an estimate of such fee; and

(v) The name of counsel, his fee and any refreshers, or an estimate of such fee and refreshers."

As for civil work, a retainer letter is advisable, but not compulsory.

However, I would advise members of the public to ask for one, so that the hourly rate chargeable is set out in writing as well as who the fee earner is.

However, sometimes the retainer letter can contain clauses that work to the detriment of the client, like the liberty to round up the time to a minimum unit.

If only three minutes are spent, the law firm may round it up to a five-minute unit. This often happens when a solicitor is under pressure to render bills to achieve his target billing.

So a retainer letter containing such clauses should be rejected, as there are many other competent law firms which can offer you equally good services without such unreasonable clauses.

Also, under Section 67 of the Legal Practitioner Ordinance, provided you make an application to the court within one month of delivery of a solicitor's bill, you can apply for that bill to be taxed and your solicitor cannot sue you to pay it until taxation is completed.

You are advised not to act in person to tax the bill, but to engage another law firm to do it, as a list of objections has to be drawn up in a professional manner.

Further interest is chargeable on the amount to be paid finally.

So, it is important that the public be educated about their rights. I am disappointed the Law Society has not done more in this regard.

I am also disappointed the Law Society has not issued a statement on what steps it will take to prevent a recurrence of the recent scandal at Wong Fung & Co, which was recently shut down by the Law Society.

Susan Liang is a lawyer who likes to speak her mind on issues that concern the man on the street