On The Improvement Of The Duty Lawyer System

The 2018 amendment to the criminal procedure law officially incorporated the duty lawyer system into the criminal procedure field of our country.As a legal helper,the duty lawyer will continue to play the function of making up for the shortage of traditional legal aid,and will match the development trend of Confession and Punishment System,the speedy procedure and the full coverage of lawyers' defense in criminal cases.As an important content of the legal aid system,the duty lawyer system running between 13 years in our country gradually clear,but it has also exposed some problems to be solved urgently:the time and rights of duty lawyers to intervene in criminal proceedings are not yet clear,lawyers to participate in the activities of formalization,engage in activities violating disciplines and laws,have poor connection with the defense system,lack of financial support,difficulties in the construction of duty lawyers,lack of supervision system and so on.In view of this,based on China's national conditions and drawing lessons from the beneficial experience of overseas duty lawyer system,the duty lawyer system in China should be reformed and improved.Britain,Canada,Australia,New Zealand,Japan,Hong Kong,China and other countries and regions have formed relatively complete on-duty lawyer systems in the long period of development.It is very worthy of refering to their mature experience in workingmethods,process setting,service content,system guarantee and other aspects.In addition,as the pilot fields of the on-duty lawyer system in China,Beijing,Guangzhou,Hangzhou,Fuzhou and Henan province not only have rich practical experience,but also have innovative measures,which have opened up a variety of paths for the development of the duty lawyer system.For this reason,in view of the problems exposed in reality and referring to the practical experience in and out of the domain,the following measures can be considered to deal with the problems and improve the system:first,give duty lawyers the right to read papers;Second,improve the working mode of duty lawyers,expand the coverage of duty lawyers,and adopt flexible ways to arrange duty;Third,the procedural provisions for duty lawyers to participate in criminal proceedings should be refined by unblocking the procedures for the the circulation procedure of legal documents,exploring the mechanism for duty lawyers to transfer to defenders,and allowing duty lawyers to participate in the sentencing negotiation process.Fourth,standardize the team of duty lawyers,design and improve the system of selection,training and quality supervision systems,and strengthen the construction of the team of on-duty lawyers;Fifth,follow up on supporting measures such as funding and incentive mechanisms to promote the construction of the duty lawyer system.