Jiangsu Provincial High People's Court Jiangsu Provincial Department of Justice
Opinions on the Implementation of Deepening the Pilot Legal Aid for Administrative Litigation
Susitong [2023] No. 4
Intermediate People's Courts of all cities, Nanjing Maritime Court, Xuzhou Railway Transport Court, grass-roots people's courts, and judicial bureaus of all cities and counties (cities and districts) divided into districts:
In August 2020, the Provincial Court and the Provincial Department of Justice issued the Notice on the Pilot of Legal Aid in Administrative Litigation (Susitong [2020] No. 24). According to the deployment requirements, the pilot areas expanded the scope of legal aid for administrative litigation, innovated the working mode, improved the linkage mechanism, and strengthened the allocation of lawyers' resources and work security. The pilot work has achieved good results. In order to further promote the substantive resolution of administrative disputes, improve the docking mechanism between administrative litigation and legal aid, boost the administrative organs to administer according to law, and solve the problem of people's "urgent difficulties and anxieties", according to the Law of the People's Republic of China on Legal Aid, the Opinions of the Supreme People's Court on Further Protecting and Regulating the Parties' Exercise of Administrative Litigation Rights in accordance with the Law The Ministry of Justice's Outline for Comprehensively Deepening the Reform of Judicial Administration (2018-2022) and other relevant work requirements put forward the following opinions on deepening the pilot work of legal aid in administrative litigation.
1、 General requirements
（1） Guiding ideology. Adhere to the guidance of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, thoroughly practice Xi Jinping Thought on the Rule of Law, and comprehensively implement the guiding spirit of General Secretary Xi Jinping's series of instructions on providing effective legal aid to people in need. Actively integrate into grass-roots social governance, further expand the coverage of legal aid for administrative litigation, mobilize dispute resolution resources according to law, improve the strength and effect of substantive resolution of administrative disputes, constantly improve the ability to prevent and resolve risks and hidden dangers, and achieve a good interaction between high-quality development and high water security.
（2） Key objectives. From February 2023, the pilot areas of legal aid for administrative litigation will be expanded to the whole province. The pilot cities with districts and districts in the early stage conscientiously summarize their experience, further deepen the pilot work, and play a typical exemplary role; Other regions actively explore and boldly practice in combination with local conditions. After three to five years of reform pilot, we will strive to significantly expand the coverage of legal aid in administrative litigation, effectively protect the litigation rights of administrative litigants, significantly enhance the service capacity of legal aid, comprehensively improve the quality and efficiency of administrative trials, and significantly improve the resolution rate of administrative disputes, so as to form replicable and promotable system innovation achievements, which will help promote the construction of a government under the rule of law.
2、 Clarify the scope of legal aid for administrative litigation
The pilot areas should orderly expand the scope of administrative legal aid It involves food and medicine, environmental resources, land and housing, labor security, urban and rural planning and other matters closely related to people's livelihood It is included in the scope of legal aid matters in administrative litigation. If the litigants who have poor litigation implementation ability and have certain factual and legal basis for their litigation claims, or who have financial difficulties and do not entrust an attorney, they shall provide legal aid in a timely manner according to their needs. The courts and judicial administrative organs in the pilot areas shall determine the specific scope of legal aid for administrative proceedings in combination with relevant regulations and local realities.
No legal aid will be granted to the parties to the case who obviously abuse their litigation rights, obviously do not meet the legal prosecution conditions, or otherwise are not suitable for legal aid.
3、 Establish and improve the work linkage mechanism
（1） Participate in the pre litigation mediation and reconciliation mechanism. To strengthen the notification guidance of the application for legal aid in administrative litigation, the filing divisions of courts at all levels in the province actively guide the parties to administrative cases who come to litigation to carry out mediation and reconciliation for the cases that can be mediated according to the provisions of the Administrative Procedure Law, the parties request reconciliation, and the cases that are more conducive to the substantive resolution of administrative disputes through reconciliation; For those that meet the scope of legal aid pilot for administrative litigation, relevant staff shall guide the parties to apply for legal aid to the local legal aid center. If a legal aid lawyer participates in pre litigation mediation and reconciliation as the agent of a party, he/she should focus on substantive resolution of administrative disputes and give full play to his/her professional advantages and communication role. Pre litigation mediation and reconciliation related materials that can reflect the legal aid lawyers' participation in the case handling process and actual effect can be included in the statistical scope of legal aid cases.
（2） The people's court first instance guidance mechanism. For cases that have been filed, the administrative tribunal shall conduct preliminary examination in a timely manner after receiving the cases. If the people's court considers that the party meets the conditions and can give legal aid, it shall, after obtaining the consent of the party concerned, send the Notification of Application for Legal Aid in Administrative Cases to the party concerned, and at the same time send the Letter of Suggestion for Legal Aid to the legal aid institution, and the party concerned shall apply to the legal aid institution by virtue of the notification. If a legal aid institution decides to grant legal aid after examination, it shall notify the people's court in writing; If it decides not to grant legal aid, the relevant information shall be explained together with the letter.
（3） Legal aid resources pooling mechanism. Legal aid institutions in cities divided into districts shall, in combination with the fact that administrative litigation cases are under centralized jurisdiction, select lawyers with corresponding experience in administrative litigation or administrative reconsideration, strong sense of responsibility, and high enthusiasm for participation throughout the city, establish a legal aid lawyers bank for administrative litigation, and specifically undertake legal aid cases for administrative litigation. In case assignment, considering the parties' willingness, lawyer participation costs and other factors, the handling lawyer can be assigned across regions. In principle, legal aid should be given to the parties to administrative litigation cases who have already provided legal aid and have not entrusted agents in the subsequent stages of litigation. At the same time, we will improve the off-site cooperation mechanism of legal aid, and strengthen the assistance and cooperation between legal aid institutions in the process of transferring applications, verifying the situation, investigating and collecting evidence, and delivering legal documents.
（4） The mechanism of "legal aid for judges". In areas where conditions permit, the intermediate people's courts of cities divided into districts can arrange judges and assistant judges of their own courts, centralized jurisdiction courts or territorial courts to receive the parties to administrative disputes at the window of the legal aid institutions at the same level on a regular basis. They are mainly responsible for answering inquiries, mediating disputes, guiding the expression of appeals through legal channels, etc. Reception information should be published in advance at the window of the legal aid institutions.
（5） Case quality feedback mechanism. The courts at all levels throughout the province shall fill in the Quality Feedback Card of Legal Aid in Administrative Cases after the conclusion of pre litigation mediation or administrative litigation legal aid cases, evaluate the representation of legal aid lawyers, and send it to the designated legal aid institutions on a monthly basis.
（6） Information sharing research and judgment mechanism. Establish and improve information sharing and work coordination mechanisms among legal aid institutions, between legal aid institutions and the administrative divisions or filing divisions of the people's courts and relevant administrative organs, and timely share information about legal aid recipients and administrative dispute resolution. The people's courts and judicial administrative organs can analyze, study and judge the prominent contradictions and problems in the settlement of administrative disputes in a timely manner through joint meetings, and put forward prevention and improvement suggestions for the universality, tendentiousness and tendency of administrative law enforcement.
4、 Strengthen the guarantee of pilot work
（1） Strengthen professional team strength. The judicial administration organ and the bar association should strengthen the guidance for law firms and lawyers to carry out administrative rule of law business, conduct regular business training, cultivate and support a number of professional law firms with distinctive administrative rule of law business characteristics, and cultivate a number of professional teams and professionals who are good at handling administrative litigation legal aid cases. Encourage and support universities and other social organizations that offer law majors to participate in the legal aid work of administrative litigation based on their own advantages.
（2） Improve the incentive guarantee mechanism. Subsidies for legal aid lawyers to participate in pre litigation mediation, reconciliation and agency of administrative litigation cases shall be calculated and paid in full and on time according to the Notice of Jiangsu Provincial Department of Justice and Jiangsu Provincial Department of Finance on Matters Related to Improving the Guiding Standards for Legal Aid Subsidies (Susitong [2019] No. 30). A differential subsidy system linked to case subsidy and case handling quality is implemented. If the service quality and effect are good, the case subsidy is determined according to the highest standard. The law firms and lawyers who have outstanding performance and obvious effect in the legal aid work of administrative litigation are praised and encouraged in an appropriate form. Courts at all levels throughout the province shall safeguard the legal aid lawyers' right to practice in accordance with the law, and provide convenience for them to read papers and participate in litigation.
（3） Standardize the daily management of cases. Implement the "one case, one evaluation" for legal aid cases in administrative litigation, regularly carry out special evaluation on the quality of legal aid cases in administrative litigation in accordance with the administrative case service specifications and evaluation rules issued by the Ministry of Justice, and incorporate the evaluation results into the annual assessment of practice institutions and practitioners. For cases involving food and drug safety, ecological environment and resource protection, public health safety and other major public interests, which are highly concerned by the society or may lead to mass incidents, collective discussion, whole process tracking and key guidance shall be carried out. Establish and improve the discovery, cultivation and recommendation mechanism of typical cases, and systematically create excellent brand cases throughout the process.
（4） Increase the publicity of the pilot project. Strengthen the publicity of the legal aid system in administrative litigation, publicize the scope and procedures of legal aid matters in administrative litigation, as well as the contact information of legal aid institutions in administrative litigation at the portals, service halls, service windows and other places of the people's courts and judicial administrative organs, increase publicity and interpretation efforts, and make the people involved in litigation understand the legal aid system, Actively choose legal aid to help them participate in administrative litigation, resolve conflicts and disputes, and improve the application rate of legal aid. Make full use of traditional media and new media such as the Internet, WeChat, and microblog to publicize the significance and positive results of the assistance work, and create a good social environment and public opinion atmosphere for the pilot work of legal aid in administrative litigation.
5、 Strengthen the organization and leadership of pilot work
The trial of legal aid for administrative litigation is an important measure to practice the purpose of justice for the people, improve the quality and efficiency of administrative trials, promote the substantive resolution of administrative disputes, and deepen the construction of a government ruled by law. The courts and judicial administrative organs at all levels in the province should further unify their ideological understanding, improve their political standing, strengthen the organization and leadership of the pilot work, clarify the division of responsibilities, coordinate and solve problems in the pilot process in a timely manner, and ensure that the pilot work achieves the expected results. The courts and judicial administrative organs in the pilot areas should jointly strive for the policy support and fund guarantee of the local party committees and governments for the legal aid work of administrative litigation, and solve the problem of insufficient funds by means of government purchase, separate disbursement, and departmental adjustment, so as to effectively guarantee the smooth progress of the pilot work. We should broaden our thinking, take the initiative, actively explore new situations and problems in the pilot, creatively carry out work, and timely report major problems in the pilot to the provincial court and the provincial judicial department.
The administrative division of the provincial court and the provincial legal aid center should establish a coordination mechanism for the work of administrative litigation legal aid, regularly organize exchanges, summaries, and reports on the progress of the work, and strengthen the comprehensive coordination, supervision, and guidance of the pilot work. Local governments can formulate implementation rules in combination with the actual situation.
Jiangsu Provincial High People's Court Jiangsu Provincial Department of Justice
February 13, 2023