Recently, Mr. Li, a resident of Nanjing, capital city of east
China’s Jiangsu Province, got into dispute with a neighbor over the
raising of pigeons. During their quarrel, the neighbor said
something that Mr. Li had only ever heard from TV series before: “I
don’t want to talk with you about this. I will leave the matter to
my lawyer.”
It
is becoming increasingly common for people to hire private lawyers
in large cities like Beijing and Nanjing. With the improvement of
the living standards of Chinese people, hiring private lawyers to
settle problems has become a practical demand in their daily
lives.
In
addition to handling legal conflicts, private lawyers, or family
law advisors, provide their litigants with other services not
related to lawsuits, such as serving as agents to make, check and
sign economic contracts, carry out credit investigations, draw up
wills or pre-marriage property notarization contracts.
According to legal experts, people are now more open and willing to
discuss any problems they might have with outsiders, especially as
lawyers always keep the information secret and can offer timely
advice in seeking legal solutions to the problems.
Besides, private lawyers provide quick and convenient service. They
offer flexibility in working time and are willing to travel, and
people can contact them via the telephone or make appointments at
any times.
Currently, the fees charged by private lawyers are comparatively
low. The annual expense to hire a lawyer is between 200-2,000 yuan
in large cities like Beijing, Nanjing and in central China’s Hebei
Province.
(CIIC 02/22/2001)