Thinking About The Duty Lawyer System

The regulations on duty lawyers were clarified in the 2018 Criminal Procedure Law.So far,the duty lawyer system has been officially confirmed in the form of law.With the widespread application of the leniency system of confession and punishment in China,the duty lawyer system is endowed with new connotation.That is,in the case where the defendant has no defender,he must be present when signing the affidavit of confession and punishment.In addition,it has played an important role in the function of providing legal assistance to the respondent and his close relatives in the summary and expedited procedure,as well as providing for effective law assistance for the respondent,safeguard legal litigation rights and promote orderly procedures.The duty lawyers in our country are distinguished from defense lawyers because of the timeliness,periodicity,emergency,and unpaid nature of the assistance they provide.The law has positioned them as helpers,which meets the current requirements of domestic judicial practice and actual national conditions.However,In the application process,the duty lawyer reveals various issues including that failing to achieve the timeliness requirements,the lack of necessary performance rights resulted in formalization of assistance,low participation in sentencing negotiation,dissimilation of roles on the spot to simple"witnesses",and poor connection with the defense system in cases of confession and punishment.As a result,based on the analysis and demonstration of the above issues,this paper proposes that we should make joint efforts in both legislation and practice,so as to ensure the timeliness of assistance from the duty lawyer;On the basis of positioning of the assistance duty,the duty lawyers are endowed the basic rights of meeting and reviewing the documents,so as to enable their assistance materialized;Strengthening the participation of the duty lawyers in the negotiation of sentencing,ensuring that it is equally important of three identities for the duty lawyers as "staff officer","witnesses" and "promoters" cases of confession and punishment;Allowing the duty lawyers to attend court hearings during expedited procedures,who can be transformed into the entrusted defense lawyers through statutory procedures,so that the duty lawyer can overcome the difficulties and break through the shackles,while helping the prosecuted person,the system itself will continue to develop and improve.