Hong Kong urged to catch up with regional neighbours and remove obstacles to lawyers providing free legal advice
- Law firms in the city are reluctant to allow employees to give free legal advice over fears insurance will not cover a lawsuit
- Australia and Singapore have both reformed laws to make it easier for lawyers to give free legal advice to organisations and members of the public
Hong Kong authorities have been urged to catch up with regional competitors in encouraging free legal advice by investing public money and setting up service platforms, according to local and Australian legal experts.
They said Australia and Singapore have launched reforms to give NGOs, and ordinary citizens, greater access to legal services needed for their daily lives, such as settling disputes with landlords and employers, or even with the police.
To provide legal advice in Hong Kong, voluntary or not, qualified lawyers must first get their law firms to buy professional indemnity insurance for them, in case their clients sue them for making a wrong call in the legal process.
In Hong Kong, lawyers can only be insured collectively as part of a law firm.
This means that lawyers cannot provide legal advice to NGOs or underprivileged people, unless they get permission and financial support from their employers.
