Legal Aid Foundation officially launched on July 1, 2004 and has begun to offer legal aid services to the public.The services cover legal consultation, mediation, settlement, drafting of legal documents, litigation representation or advocacy.It mainly serves the underprivileged members who are not properly protected by the laws due to their financially challenged circumstances or other reasons (such as mandatory advocacy cases, applicants’ incapability to intellectually express their opinions in the court, etc.).

More then ten thousand cases were aided in the past year illustrating a great demand for legal aid：

During the period of July 1, 2005 through June 30, 2005, the Foundation undertook 17,889 application cases.After examination, about 7,640 cases (fully aided plus partially aided) were reviewed by the legal aid lawyers and 4,272 cases were for consultation aid services.As of the first year, more than 11,000 cases benefited from aid provided for by the Foundation.The results can be divided into the following:

1. 32 cases a day were aided by Legal Aid Foundation.
2. A case was aided by Legal Aid Foundation every 45 minutes.

• The unique system of issuing guarantee certificates
  When the economically disadvantaged people resort to the courts, they often do not have the means to sequestrate the defendant’s properties. Article 65 of the Legal Aid Act thoroughly covers this problem.The provision stipulates that if a legal aid claim has a highly favorable prospect of success and it is necessary to issue an injunction to prevent the defendant from dissipating his or her properties, then the Foundation’s branch office may issue a guarantee certificate which a recipient of legal aid can file in court instead of paying the security for the order. The Foundation has issued 161 guarantee certificates during the year, totaling NT 76,529,498 dollars in security.

• Assistance in adjudication fees and the courts’ procedural relief system
  In the past, adjudication fees used to be a barrier for the underprivileged to access the courts, and the system of procedural relief provided by the courts was very rigid.The provisions of Article 62 of the Legal Aid Act resolve the problem. Under the Article, courts must grant procedural relief in legal aid cases. At the same time, the adjudication fees are also covered by the Foundation, so applicants need not fret over adjudication fees.

The legal aid scope and categories that Taiwan’s Legal Aid Foundation presents are all very extensive and diversified.For instance, the legal aid scope covers civil cases, criminal cases and administrative litigation cases.Moreover, besides offering the aid of consultation, drafting and litigation representation, representation for mediation and settlement is also included in the categories – making the range of their services far and wide.In addition to local citizens, the Foundation has also extended its aid target to foreigners.As such, Taiwan’s Legal Aid Foundation is equipped with comprehensive and diversified features.

Currently, the Foundation has not yet established an in-house lawyer system, so the case examination and the aid needed after cases have passed examination are all conducted by project-based lawyers (project-based lawyers refers to the enthusiastic lawyers who are solicited by the Foundation to join the Foundation, so there is no employment relationship between the lawyers and the Foundation.Those who participate in the Foundation’s examination and the legal aid lawyers may work on their own schedule to decide on their turns in the Foundation and the number of cases they will take every month.Their relationship with the Foundation is similar to a commissioned-contract).As to the assignment of lawyers, basically if applicants specifically designate certain lawyers or request the specific qualifications of the lawyers (i.e., some applicants may prefer female lawyers), the Foundation will generally respect the requests made by applicants.If the applicants do not specify any lawyers, the Foundation will help the applicant choose appropriate lawyers according to the attributes of the cases and the lists filled out by lawyers for the categories they intend to aid.

According to paragraph 5 in article 10 of the Legal Services Corporation Act, the Foundation may accept the legal aid business commissioned by the Government agencies.In order to protect laborer’s rights and interests, during the preliminary stage to carry out the labor pension act, the laborers whose labor contracts were illegally terminated by their employers and the ones who filed litigations to the court due to the disputes resulting from the termination of labor contracts caapply to the Council of Labor Affairs for litigation aid.As from the end of June, 2005, the Foundation has been officially commissioned by the Council of Labor Affairs to help laborers who are inappropriately dismissed by their employers with litigation aid, and assist the Government with administration.In doing so, in addition to alleviating the workload of the Government’s administrative personnel, legal aid resources will also be effectively integrated.

The major case category commissioned by the Council of Labor Affairs is cases of violation made by employers to terminate labor contracts.In principle, it only has less of a restriction on the criteria of financial eligibility.The cases themselves shall also comply with “convincing reasons” and be limited to illegal termination of labor contracts instead of the cases being initiated by laborers themselves.At present, there are six categories qualify: illegal dismissal, illegal layoff, illegal mandatory retirement, severance fee, pension and mass labor dismissal.

or the approved cases commissioned by the Council of Labor Affairs, if the legal aid recipients are not financially capable, they may apply to the Foundation for issuing the affidavits to replace the security bond required by security procedure.At the beginning of the prosecution, based on the Legal Services Corporation Act, legal aid lawyers shall plead to the court for litigation aid.However, for those who are financially capable, they are not applicable for the use of affidavits and litigation aid.

1) Elements of legal aid：

• Labor dismissal cases make up for the majority of cases commissioned by the Council of Labor Affairs.There is no restriction of financial eligibility for this category.As long as it is maliciously initiated by employers to terminate labor contracts, the laborers are eligible for the aid.
• The standards set by the Council of Labor Affairs are flexible regarding financial eligibility, but the cases still require a convincing reason. The cases for termination of labor contracts are generally not initiated by laborers themselves, so this they are eligible for legal aid.Currently, categories of cases qualify: illegal dismissal, illegal layoff, illegal mandatory retirement, severance fee, pension, and mass labor dismissal.

2) Examining mechanism：

• The cases applied to the Foundation are to be examined according to the Foundation's examining procedure and committee.
• Affidavits: If it is necessary for provisional seizure, the Foundation will issue affidavits according to its criteria.This means the affidavits are only available for those applicants who meet the criteria of statutory financial eligibility.
• Litigation aid: If it is necessary for litigation aid, the Foundation’s procedure shall be complied and the applicants shall be limited to those who are financially eligible.Therefore, “financial eligibility” is still the premise for applicants to be approved for the litigation aid.

After officially commissioned by the Council of Labor Affairs on July 1, 2005, the Foundation will continue to communicate and negotiate with the Council of Labor Affairs on the issues encountered in its practical implementation.