Policy Address

Enhancing Legal Aid Service

148.     To make legal aid services more accessible, the Government has recently decided to substantially increase the financial eligibility limits of the Ordinary Legal Aid Scheme and the Supplementary Legal Aid Scheme (SLAS).  Moreover, the age requirement for exempting part of the savings in calculating disposable capital will be relaxed from the age of 65 to 60.

149.     To complement the SLAS review soon to be completed by the Legal Aid Services Council, and to benefit more middle-class people, the Government will earmark $100 million for injection into the SLAS Fund when necessary to expand the scheme to cover more types of cases, such as claims for damages for professional negligence in a wider range of professions, and claims to recover outstanding wages and other employee benefits.

150.     In addition to legal aid services, the public can also obtain preliminary legal advice through the government-funded Free Legal Advice Scheme without any means testing. We will enhance support services for the scheme to attract more volunteer lawyers to join.

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