Research On The System Of Lawyer’s Full Coverage In Criminal Cases

The Fourth Plenary Session of the 18 th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China proposed the “ trial-centered litigation system reform ”.The core of the reform of the trial-centered litigation system is the substantialization of trial,which cannot be separated from the full and effective participation of defense lawyers.For a long time,the defense rate of lawyers in criminal cases in China has always been low.In judicial practice,a large proportion of criminal suspects and defendants are unable to obtain lawyers ’ defense,and their litigation rights,especially the right to defense,are difficult to be effectively guaranteed.In this context,the Supreme People ’ s Court and the Ministry of Justice jointly issued《Approach to pilot full coverage of counsel in criminal cases》in October 2017,and the full coverage system of lawyers ’ defense in criminal cases came into being.As the earliest pilot areas,Z City of H Province selected Mengzhou City and Wuzhi County as pilot counties in 2017,and began to pilot the full coverage system of lawyers ’ defense in criminal cases;In 2018,the pilot work was fully implemented in six counties and four districts of Z City,H Province.Taking Z city of H province as an example,this paper makes a comprehensive investigation on the implementation of the full coverage system of lawyers ’ defense in criminal cases,analyzes the current situation and existing problems since the pilot work,and puts forward reasonable suggestions on the improvement of the system.As the earliest pilot areas,Z City of H Province selected Mengzhou City and Wuzhi County as pilot counties in 2017,and began to pilot the full coverage system of lawyers ’ defense in criminal cases;In2018,the pilot work was fully implemented in six counties and four districts of Z City,H Province.Taking Z city of H province as an example,this paper conducts a comprehensive investigation on the implementation of the full coverage system of lawyers ’ defense in criminal cases,analyzes the current situation and existing problems since the pilot work,and puts forward reasonable suggestions on the improvement of the system.Under the framework of China’ s current criminal procedure system,there are mainly two ways for criminal suspects and defendants to obtain lawyers ’ defense :one is to entrust or entrust lawyers to defend themselves by their relatives;the other is to assign aid lawyers to defend by legal aid agencies.Affected by objective factors,China’ s citizens’ legal concept,household income and short-term income cannot be significantly improved.Therefore,the realization of full coverage of counsel in criminal cases relies mainly on the assignment of assistance counsel by legal aid agencies to provide counsel for suspects and defendants.Since 2017,with the increase of the number of criminal legal aid cases,the rate of lawyer defense in criminal cases has been significantly improved,and the pilot work of full coverage system of lawyer defense in criminal cases has achieved phased results.However,in the process of carrying out the pilot work,there are also many problems,such as incomplete coverage,insufficient lawyer resources,insufficient financial guarantee,insufficient quality of cases,and imperfect connection mechanism.The implementation of the full coverage system of lawyers ’ defense in criminal cases has brought hope to China ’ s judicial system reform,but also faces many problems and challenges.The author believes that the full coverage system of lawyers’ defense in criminal cases should be continuously improved from the aspects of further deepening the implementation scope of the “full coverage” system,strengthening the protection of legal aid funds,expanding the team of criminal defense lawyers,improving the quality of legal aid cases,and improving relevant supporting mechanisms,so as to effectively protect the legitimate rights and interests of criminal suspects and defendants.