Judicial bodies at the lower levels did their best to improve their work by taking several steps in 1999, thus contributing much to the progress of the rule of law. These measures included providing legal consultation to ordinary people, mediating civil issues, establishing grass-roots legal aid organizations and helping ex-convicts readjust to life after serving their sentences.
Last year, the Ministry of Justice advocated that judicial bodies at every level open a special phone line, “148”, by dialing which ordinary people can get legal consultation from experts. By the end of 1999, the “148” hotline was opened in 267 cities and prefectures, and 2,942 counties throughout the mainland. As a result, over 2 million people received legal consultation by telephone, 428,917 people directly visited the service centers to ask for help, and the service centers handled 241,978 cases and legal issues, and mediated 149,325 civil disputes.
There are people’s mediation organizations at every level of government, which are believed to be playing a vital role in maintaining social stability and reducing the crime rate. Last year saw these organizations mediating 5.18 million civil disputes, with the rate of success being 98.3 percent. Because of the work of these organizations, a large number of civil disputes were prevented from deteriorating into criminal cases.
Apart from these, government-run legal aid firms are flourishing. There are 119,000 legal service workers in 35,000 grass-roots agencies in 74 percent of the country’s rural towns and in urban neighborhoods. In 1999, they provided advice for 486,817 companies, institutions and individuals. They also provided both paid and free legal aid for 110,293 litigants.
In order to improve social stability and prevent juvenile delinquency, special offices were established for helping those released after serving sentences to resettle and find work. Last year, for example, 287,957 out of 298,381 ex-convicts were resettled thanks to the work of these organizations, according to statistics made by the Ministry of Justice.
