China amends law to make life easier for lawyers and Oks for One Person Law Firm

October 28, 2007, China's top legislature on Sunday adopted a draft amendment to the Law on Lawyers which will make it easier for lawyers to meet criminal suspects and obtain evidence.

The amendment also allows lawyers who have been practicing for five years - provided they didn't have their license suspended over the past three years - to establish individual law firms.

China now has more than 130,000 lawyers working in 13,000 law firms. In 2006 alone, Chinese lawyers dealt with more than 1.8 million litigation cases and 1.15 million non-litigation cases and provided legal aid in more than 5.2 million cases, according to statistics from the Ministry of Justice. (S.L.)