Lawyers find access to clients easier

A flood of defense lawyers have visited their clients in Beijing detention houses since Friday, taking advantage of the expansive new Criminal Procedure Law that took effect from January 1 allowing them to meet clients without permission from police and prosecutors.

Before the new law took effect, lawyers sometimes could not meet with their clients while the cases were under investigation, and police could listen in on conversations they had preparing their defense.

But in a sign of change, some 137 lawyers successfully met with their clients on Friday at four large detention houses in Beijing: No.1 and No.3 detention houses and the detention houses of Chaoyang district and Haidian district, the Beijing prison and detention houses management corps said Monday.

"In the past, when I wanted to meet with my clients, I had to get permits from local public security departments or judiciary departments to verify me as their defense lawyer," Lu Yingzhong, a defense lawyer from the Beijing-based Dada Law Firm told the Global Times Monday. In some cases, Lu could not meet with his clients, because he could not get the permits.

Under the new rules, police can only listen in on exceptional cases, and lawyers have access to all of their clients' files as soon as police finish their investigation and will then be handed over documents to start building their defendants' cases.　

Zhao Yuntao, a lawyer from Beijing Zhongrun Law Firm, said it is a positive move.
"When lawyers can know their clients' cases clearly at an early stage, they can help prosecutors to identify evidence, and also give suggestions, such as whether to refer the case to court or not," he told the Global Times.

On Friday, at the detention house of Shunyi district, Lu met with a client whose case was still under investigation, and on Monday he went to the detention house in Chaoyang district to meet another client whose case is in the trial phase. He said the new procedures are working smoothly.

"At first, I wasn't sure whether I could meet my client while the case is still under investigation," Lu said.

"But the facts show that the new rules are effective," he noted.