Legal assistance from external lawyers costs justice department HK$284m
About HK$284 million was spent on hiring lawyers from outside the government to help with legal cases in the year from April 1, 2012 to March 31, 2013, the justice department said.
About HK$284 million was spent on hiring lawyers from outside the government to help with legal cases in the year from April 1, 2012 to March 31, 2013, the justice department said yesterday.
That included HK$6.9 million on arbitration between the administration and the Eastern Harbour Tunnel's operator, and a total of HK$6.8 million on two legal cases regarding a Filipino domestic helper's challenge for the right of abode in Hong Kong.
The figures were revealed in a paper submitted to the Legislative Council's Finance Committee by the Department of Justice, but the department did not provide a comparison with figures from previous years.
Legal lawmaker Dennis Kwok said while the overall spending seemed reasonable, he believed the government's scale of maximum fees for "briefing out" cases "failed to reflect the market condition" and should be reviewed.
In the paper, the Justice Department explained that while it had its own legal team, the government's policy warranted briefing out cases - or hiring lawyers externally - if an issue was too complicated or required expert assistance.
Under the department's scale of maximum fees for briefing out cases, the brief fee for a lawyer representing the government at the District Court and the Court of First Instance was capped at HK$14,940 for and HK$22,440 respectively for the first day in court. Subsequent days were charged at lower fees. Yet the department could approve payment of higher fees for engaging barristers in cases of "unusual complexity or length".
