"If you have any questions, please contact my lawyer," is a phrase increasingly familiar to more and more Chinese people. However, there is no law to protect a lawyer's right to investigate a case or collect evidence, and they say they often meet with obstruction and evasion because of it.

Gao Zongze, principal of the All China Lawyers Association, said an amendment to the Lawyers Law was drafted at the 2nd Chinese Youth Lawyers Forum, which ended on May 15. The amendment will be delivered to the State Council this year.

In preparing the amendment, the Committee for Internal and Judicial Affairs of the National People's Congress began research in April in Beijing, Tianjin and Chongqing municipalities as well as the provinces of Anhui and Guangdong.

At the forum, lawyers discussed the difficulties involved in collecting evidence with attending judges, saying that sometimes it is even hard for them to meet the litigants involved in their cases.

Chen Xingliang, vice dean of Peking University Law School, said that lawyers should be considered freelancers who provide legal services, since their rights are an extension of the individual rights of a citizen rather than those of the state or society.

The Ministry of Justice also hopes to aid further reforms by establishing systems to examine lawyers' standards and provide guidance for them.

(China.org.cn by Wu Nanlan, May 23, 2005)