State Council Information Office press conference: Vice Minister of Justice Li Mingzheng talks about the construction of the public legal service system during the "15th Five-Year Plan" period

China News Service, September 16. On September 16, the State Council Information Office held a press conference on promoting the implementation of comprehensive law-based governance and judicial administration during the "15th Five-Year Plan" period, and serving to ensure high-quality economic and social development. Deputy Minister of Justice Li Mingzheng said at the meeting that during the 14th Five-Year Plan period, the three major platforms of public legal service entities, hotlines, and the Internet provided more than 170 million legal consultation services, with a public satisfaction rate of more than 95%.

This year, the Ministry of Justice will launch the “15th Five-Year Plan” for the construction of the national public legal service system. It will continue to make efforts in the following aspects to promote the upgrading of the construction of the public legal service system from “yes” to “not good”.

The first is to promote more balanced and accessible public legal services. Accelerate the implementation of the integration project of the three major platforms of public legal service entities, hotlines, and the Internet, promote the online substantive processing of service matters, make better use of new technologies such as artificial intelligence, blockchain, and big data, improve the level of intelligent legal consultation and business processing, and provide the people with 24-hour 'non-closing' public legal services. Coordinate the implementation of plans such as ‘Legal Aid to the West’, ‘Legal Aid to the Grassroots’ and ‘Lawyer Industry to the West and Grassroots Empowerment’, and improve the regular cross-regional flow mechanism of legal service resources to make the ‘last mile’ of legal services smoother.

The second is to promote professional legal services to be more accurate and efficient. Implement the newly revised Lawyers Law, continue to deepen party building in the lawyer industry, guide lawyers to more consciously support the leadership of the Communist Party of China, support my country’s socialist rule of law, and be good lawyers that satisfy the party and the people. Promote the expansion and quality improvement of lawyer services, guide the connotative, professional and refined development of the lawyer industry, and build a brand law firm. Implement the newly revised Arbitration Law, strengthen arbitration professionalism, and comprehensively improve arbitration service capabilities. Optimize the layout of city and county notary institutions and create a number of high-level, large-scale, and branded notary institutions. Accelerate the construction of a number of high-level forensic appraisal institutions and continuously improve the quality and credibility of forensic appraisals.

The third is to promote public welfare legal services to be more heart-warming and peaceful for the people. Currently, there are more than 3,000 legal aid institutions and more than 440,000 legal aid workstations and contact points across the country, and the accessibility of legal aid is constantly improving. Focusing on key targets such as disabled people, migrant workers, the elderly, minors, and workers with new employment forms, we will in-depth implement the construction of "one group, one brand" to demonstrate our foundation for the people. Improve the legal volunteer service system, vigorously develop the volunteer team, continue to carry out special activities such as the 'Tibet Lawyers Service Group' and the '1+1' Legal Aid Volunteer Action, carry out in-depth 'Legal Aid Volunteer Action' activities, guide and support the role of more than 100,000 legal aid volunteers in more than 200 universities across the country (legal aid volunteers in universities are mainly college students, those who study law), and continuously enhance the appeal and influence of public welfare legal services.