The Duty Lawyer Scheme provides legal representation by qualified lawyers in private practice to eligible defendants appearing in all Magistrates' Courts, Juvenile Courts and to any person who is at risk of criminal prosecution as a result of giving incriminating evidence in Coroner's inquest. To be eligible for the Duty Lawyer representation, the charge involved must be within the scope of our Standard List of Offences unless directed otherwise, and one has to pass the means test and pay a fixed handling charge of $640. The Scheme also assigns lawyers to advise defendants facing extradition and to undertake representation of hawkers upon their appeals to the Municipal Services Appeals Board.

The Free Legal Advice Scheme provides one-off preliminary legal advice to members of the public as to their legal position in genuine cases at various Home Affairs Enquiry Centres in the evenings.

The Tel-Law Scheme provides pre-recorded legal information to members of the public by telephone and via the links on this website. It is a fully computerised system and operates 24 hours which provides voice recordings on more than 81 legal topics in Cantonese, Putonghua and English.

The Legal Assistance Scheme for Non-refoulement Claimants provides legal assistance to the claimants who have made claims by reason(s) of:

(1) torture risk under Part VIIC of the Immigration Ordinance (Cap. 115);
(2) risk of torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment ("CIDTP") under Article 3 of section 8 of the Hong Kong Bill of Rights Ordinance (Cap.383) ("BOR3");
(3) risk to a person's right to life under Article 2 of section 8 of the Hong Kong Bill of Rights Ordinance (Cap.383) ("BOR 2"); and/or
(4) persecution risk with reference to the non-refoulement claims principle under Article 33 of the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees ("persecution").