Current situation of grass-roots legal service offices

Grassroots legal service offices first appeared in Guangdong, Fujian, Liaoning and other places at the end of 1980, mainly for farmers, mediating production and operation disputes, and engaging in simple legal services such as writing books and answering legal advice. Since 1984, it has been affirmed and promoted by the Ministry of Justice and the Central Secretariat for many times in the form of meetings and documents, and it has developed rapidly throughout the country and spread rapidly to streets, factories and mines in large and medium-sized cities. Since 1986, under the guidance of the policy of "consolidation, improvement, perfection and development", the national grassroots legal services have shown a sharp upward trend. By the end of 1989, there were 29,979 township legal service offices, 90,333 township (street) legal workers,1377,624 cases of mediation of disputes,1727,265 cases of notarization assistance and 65,438 cases of civil litigation agents. There are 235,037 non-litigation agents, serving as perennial legal advisers to grass-roots governments and enterprises 104073, writing 594,356 legal documents and answering 3,986,602 legal consultations, recovering economic losses of 2126.88 million yuan, with a substantial increase in various businesses compared with 1988. From 65438 to the early 1990s, the grassroots legal service office was regarded as one of the "grassroots political and legal organizations" in the Decision of the State Council, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Strengthening the Comprehensive Management of Social Security and other related documents.

Since 1990s, the township legal service offices have entered the stage of summary and rectification, and the construction of grassroots legal service offices has shifted to a new stage of higher level, higher level, higher quality and higher efficiency. The Ministry of Justice has successively promulgated the Interim Provisions for Township Legal Service Offices and the Detailed Rules for Township Legal Service Business, confirming the broad business scope of lawyers similar to grassroots legal services. The Ministry of Justice has also issued a "township legal worker certificate" as the qualification certification or practice certificate of legal service workers (but in fact, the audit right is handed over to the county-level judicial bureau); In the "Notice on Printing and Distributing the Second Batch of Catalogue of Administrative Fees of Relevant Departments in the State Council" issued by the State Council Price Bureau, the business fees of grass-roots legal services are listed as items that allow fees. Generally speaking, the rectification and reform in the 1990s strengthened the grassroots legal service system. 1992 the number of newly-built township legal service offices has increased 1087 compared with that before rectification. After dismissing and dismissing unqualified legal personnel during the rectification period, new personnel were added, which was 10467 more than before the rectification; In China, 13.8% of township lawyers have junior college education, 62.3% have high school (technical secondary school) education, and 1205 people are qualified as lawyers; Many legal service institutions have been reorganized, increasing the level and scope of service business; The rules and regulations of legal service offices began to improve, and less than 80% of legal service offices implemented listing service and "two openness and one supervision" system; Office conditions and material equipment have also been improved. At that time, the official documents unanimously affirmed that the grassroots legal service office played an important role in assisting grassroots governments to promote governance according to law, resolve grassroots contradictions, popularize legal knowledge, and rectify hot issues related to law, and became an important auxiliary force for grassroots political and legal basic work.

However, at the turn of the century, it seems to be a turning point in the fate of grassroots legal services. Suppressing the development of grassroots legal services has become the mainstream trend of official attitude. After several adjustments, the functions, systems and objectives of grass-roots legal services are rather confusing at present. In March 2000, the Ministry of Justice promulgated the Measures for the Administration of Grassroots Legal Service Offices and the Measures for the Administration of Grassroots Legal Service Workers, which stipulated that "Grassroots legal service offices should be managed and operated in accordance with the institution legal person system" and "political affairs should be integrated with the judicial offices of township governments"; In August of the same year, the documents "Guo Ban Fa (2000) No.51No.9" and "Qing Ban Fa (2000) No.9" pointed out that the legal service office "is no longer affiliated with the administrative institutions or institutions, but implements the self-discipline operation mechanism of self-practice, self-support, self-management and self-development, and becomes a partnership practice organization form that conforms to the rules of the legal intermediary service industry" Later, throughout the country, the spirit of the Measures was thoroughly implemented, and grassroots legal services were comprehensively cleaned up and rectified, requiring all grassroots legal services and judicial offices to be decoupled and restructured in accordance with the above provisions. Since then, the number of grass-roots legal service offices in China has gone from a continuous rise to a sharp decline. By the end of 2000, there were 342 19 grass-roots legal service offices in China, which was 1 164 fewer than 1999. But perhaps due to the influence of inertia, the total number of grassroots legal service workers in China was 12 1904. Business volume has also increased. Acting in civil, economic and administrative litigation increased by 6.3% over the previous year, and serving as perennial legal advisers to grassroots people's governments, village (neighborhood) committees and enterprises and institutions increased by 5.9% over the previous year, and other businesses also increased. However, by 200 1 year, the number of grass-roots legal service offices in China dropped sharply to 28,647 (5,572 fewer than the previous year), and the total number of grass-roots legal service workers decreased by 139 19 compared with the previous year. Except litigation agency, the service business increased slightly, while other businesses declined significantly. In 2002, the number of grass-roots legal service offices and their service personnel continued to decline, with the number of service offices decreasing by 1 1,758 and the number of employees decreasing by 9,444 compared with 2006.

Second, the role of grassroots legal service in the grassroots legal service system

The role of grass-roots legal service in the grass-roots legal service system is determined by its relationship with other subjects in the system. From these relationships, we can also understand the reasons why there are different opinions on the current evaluation and future design of grassroots legal services.

1. Grassroots legal service offices and grassroots judicial offices-form "one team, two brands".

As a first-class judicial administrative organization, grass-roots judicial offices came into being in the mid-1990s, about 10 years later than grass-roots legal services, but their functions came into being almost at the same time as legal services. 198 1 year 1 1 month The Ministry of Justice's Interim Provisions on the Work of Judicial Assistants stipulates that people's communes (towns) and subdistrict offices shall set up full-time judicial assistants as judicial administrative staff of grassroots people's governments, and the people's communes (towns), subdistrict offices and county (district) judicial bureaus (offices) June 1996 Opinions of the Ministry of Justice on Strengthening the Construction of Judicial Offices clearly stipulates eight main functions of grassroots judicial offices, including guiding and managing grassroots legal services and handling civil disputes on behalf of township people's governments (street offices). 1991September, the Ministry of Justice's Working Rules for Township Legal Services also stipulated that all legal services handled by township legal services should be conducted under the leadership of the township people's government and its judicial assistants (judicial offices). The relationship between grass-roots legal service offices and grass-roots judicial offices is as follows: grass-roots judicial offices are national grass-roots judicial administrative organs, grass-roots legal service offices are social organizations, and they are the relationship between management and being managed, guidance and guidance; Grassroots judicial offices are allocated by the state finance and approved by the state. Grassroots legal services are self-funded, self-financing, and have no fixed establishment; Grassroots legal services can charge fees for services provided by clients, while grassroots judicial offices cannot charge fees for legal aid. However, from the literature, we can't see the basis of "two brands and one staff" in judicial offices and legal service offices. Combined with the information obtained from the empirical investigation, we know that the director of the early legal service office was a judicial assistant, and the judicial assistant became the director of the later judicial office, thus forming a situation in which the director, staff and work functions of the two offices were integrated.

2. Grass-roots legal service offices and law firms-enemies of "constantly cutting chaos".

More than a decade ago, law firms gradually decoupled from the administrative organs and completely went to the market (but in many rural grassroots, state-owned law firms are still the main or only local law firms). Nowadays, the grass-roots legal service offices, which are mainly towns and streets, are also decoupling from the judicial offices of administrative organs and going to the market in the same way. According to the relevant documents in 2000, after the grass-roots legal service office is completely decoupled and restructured, it is not much different from the existing law firm system, and its rights and obligations in the practice process are not much different from those in the Lawyers Law, including consulting relevant materials of civil, economic and administrative cases from the people's courts, and having the right to investigate and inquire from relevant units and individuals according to the needs of undertaking matters, with the Certificate of Grass-roots Legal Service and the License of Legal Service. Their obligations also include "safeguarding legal dignity and social justice", dutifully safeguarding the legitimate rights and interests of the parties, and fulfilling legal aid obligations according to regulations. However, there are obvious differences between grass-roots legal services and law firms: (1) Geographical scope: grass-roots legal services mainly serve grass-roots units and individuals in rural areas and urban streets in this region, while law firms are not restricted by this; (2) Business scope: Grassroots legal services cannot handle criminal cases and related businesses, while law firms can handle all litigation and non-litigation businesses including criminal cases; (3) Practicing qualification: the practitioners of grass-roots legal service offices require to obtain the qualification certificate of specialized legal service workers, and the Ministry of Justice will organize examinations for qualification certification; Lawyers practicing in law firms must pass the national unified judicial examination organized by the Ministry of Justice, the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate; (4) Revenue and expenditure system: legal service workers must be accepted, appointed and charged by the legal service office in accordance with the provisions of the provincial price bureaus, and the charging standard is low. Many cases only charge legal fees, and some even do not charge according to the requirements of legal aid standards; Law firms charge more. Legal service workers and legal service offices only need to pay a very low annual inspection fee without paying taxes; Lawyers and law firms must pay personal income tax and management fees according to specific standards.

3. Grassroots legal service offices and people's mediation committees are service entities with overlapping functions under the leadership of the same judicial office.

According to the Organization Regulations of the People's Mediation Committee issued by the State Council on June 1989, the People's Mediation Committee is a mass organization that mediates civil disputes under villagers' committees and residents' committees, and works under the guidance of grassroots people's governments and grassroots people's courts represented by judicial assistants. Members of the people's mediation committee are elected by the masses, except members of villagers' committees or residents' committees. The people's mediation committee does not charge for mediating civil disputes, and its working expenses and subsidies for people's mediators are solved by villagers' committees or residents' committees (it is stipulated that the mediation can be successfully charged appropriately); After the promulgation of the judicial interpretation of the Supreme Court in September 2002, the effectiveness of the people's mediation agreement has the nature of a civil contract. However, the mediation agreement reached by grassroots legal workers is not binding and can only be consciously performed by both parties. If one party refuses to perform without justifiable reasons, legal workers may inform, assist or entrust the other party to bring a lawsuit to the people's court. However, as the legal duties of the judicial assistant as the director of the judicial office include guiding and managing people's mediation and participating in the mediation of major and difficult civil disputes, in a judicial office with only one judicial assistant, it is often "a set of three brands", and the director of the judicial office concurrently serves as the director of the legal service office and the director of the mediation Committee. Therefore, in specific cases, the above differences are of little significance.

Third, the social evaluation and future fate of grassroots legal service offices.

Grass-roots legal service is a spontaneous mechanism based on social needs, which relies on policies and administrative means to promote expansion without theoretical argumentation, market research and legal norms. Its survival depends strongly on policies. As for the subjective reasons why we are particularly concerned about the sharp decline in grassroots legal service policies, there is no very exact official basis at present. Combined with the contact with the top management and the analysis of the research group itself, the disorderly development of grassroots legal services, coupled with the rapid development of lawyers in urban areas and increasingly fierce competition in recent years, the disadvantages and disadvantages of grassroots legal services are increasingly apparent, especially the low-cost competition and inferior services have become a fatal attack that directly threatens the existence value of grassroots legal services. The personnel changes and thinking changes of senior leaders of the judicial administrative department are also important reasons for the sudden change in the development trend of legal services.

1September 1999 to1September 1999, the Judicial Research Institute of the Ministry of Justice formed four research groups, which went to Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Shandong, Jiangsu, Henan, Shaanxi, Gansu, Guangdong and Hubei * * * 10 provinces and cities to discuss the establishment and business scope of law firms and legal services. According to the investigation results of the investigation team, there are some outstanding problems in the legal service market: (1) The names of grassroots legal service institutions are confusing, and there are various legal service offices, legal service centers, law firms, legal service stations, legal consultation centers, legal service companies and legal consulting companies; (2) The distribution of legal services is not reasonable. Generally speaking, there are many cities, few rural areas, and even fewer poor areas. (3) The charging standard is not standardized. Because there is no uniform regulation on the charging standard of legal services in the Ministry, the charging basis can only be based on the temporary charging methods introduced by some provinces and cities; (4) The authority for examination and approval of the establishment of a legal service office is not uniform, with the approval of provincial and municipal judicial bureaus, regional and county judicial bureaus, provincial editorial boards, provincial governments, provincial legislative affairs offices, provincial high courts, provincial procuratorates, provincial industrial and commercial bureaus, aging committees and other non-judicial administrative departments. (5) The quality of legal service workers is low. 1987 the Ministry of justice stipulates that people with high school education and certain legal knowledge can engage in grassroots legal services. However, due to the lack of a unified national qualification examination, all localities have a more casual grasp of their qualifications. (6) The ranks of legal service workers need to be rectified urgently, mainly some retirees from political and legal organs, some of whom entered legal service institutions to handle human cases and relationship cases less than two years after retirement, and the masses have greatly reflected this; (7) The management of legal service office needs to be standardized, lacking the norms and constraints of professional ethics and practice discipline, and so on.

Despite the above problems, all sectors of society have no objection to retaining legal services at the township level; However, there are great differences on whether to set up a legal service office at the street level in the city; There are different opinions on whether and how to divide the business scope of legal service offices. However, the intention of some senior officials to let legal services go to the market and survive in the market competition has been reflected in the change of administrative structure. For example, the grass-roots departments of the Ministry of Justice that manage legal services are adjusted from grass-roots departments to lawyers and notaries, and grass-roots legal services and lawyers are brought into the same management system. However, this seemingly market-oriented and autonomous intention is not consistent with the spirit of the speeches and documents of senior leaders. For example, in 2002, the Ministry of Justice issued the Opinions on Strengthening Community Legal Services in Large and Medium-sized Cities. In 2003, Minister Zhang of the Ministry of Justice delivered a speech at the national forum of judicial departments (bureaus), demanding that grassroots legal services should be based on the community, close to the people, convenient in service and low in fees. In order to meet the legal needs of low-income groups and vulnerable groups in cities, the function of grassroots legal services in large and medium-sized cities is positioned as "relying on street communities, Facing the grassroots, we can't imagine how "public welfare" and "non-profit" legal services can adapt to the profit-driven and leveraged market-oriented system/management model, nor can we imagine how a grassroots service organization without government support and market funds can achieve the goal of "public welfare". It is reasonable to speculate that grassroots legal services may rely on "(relying on) the community to obtain social donations, thus becoming public welfare and non-profit legal service institutions? In any case, we haven't seen any official documents or speeches about the future orientation of rural grassroots legal services. However, officials, scholars and media close to lawyers in large and medium-sized cities are imagining legal aid institutions funded by the government and "group autonomous organizations" controlled by the government based on different positions and goals.