在去年六月,民政事務局根據2010年至2012年之通漲,建議上調刑事法律援助費用9.3%。在去年九月,法律援助服務局(「服務局」)向香港特別行政區行政長官(「特首」)建議說「無迫切的需要去設立一個獨立的法律援助管理局」。香港大律師公會認為上述兩項事情都不能接受:(1)刑事法律援助費用低得不能再低,要處理這個長久以來的問題,不能只依賴兩年一度的按照一個大有問題的基準費用而作調整。再者,若將(i)政府給予處理法援刑事案件的大律師委聘和延聘費用,和(ii)政府支付其他法律服務的費用對比,實在有天壤之別:若再將(i)1975年一個處理刑事案的大律師的平均委聘費用,與(ii)現今處理刑事案的大律師所收的低微委聘費用相比,所得的結果就算不令香港蒙羞,也會令政 In June last year, the Home Affairs Bureau recommended a rise of 9.3% of the cost of criminal legal aid based on inflation from 2010 to 2012. In September last year, the Legal Aid Services Council (“the Bureau”) advised the chief executive of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (“Chief Executive”) that there was “no pressing need to establish an independent legal aid authority”. The Hong Kong Bar Association considers that neither of the above two things can be accepted: (1) the cost of criminal legal aid can not go down any lower. To deal with this long-standing issue, we can not rely solely on the once-biennial benchmark fee Make adjustments. Moreover, comparing the costs of (i) the appointment and extension of the barristers provided by the government to criminal cases of legal aid with (ii) the cost of other legal services paid by the government is totally different: if (i) 1975 The average commissioning fee of a barrister sitting in a criminal case in the year compared with (ii) the fee for a low commission collected by a barrister now dealing with a criminal case will not result in humiliation in Hong Kong,