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Lawyer sticks up for migrant workers
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FIVE migrant workers covered with sweat went to Han Mingzhi’s law office in Pudong New Area seeking help. They came to Shanghai from a village in southwest China’s Yunnan Province. Through a labor agency, they found a job as porters at the dock in Waigaoqiao Area, Pudong.
But payments of 1,200 yuan (US$192) each were in arrears for more than a month and the port company had no intention of paying. The labor agency had disappeared. Together they had barely 2,000 yuan. They wanted their hard-earned money.
A lawsuit would cost 300 yuan per person for arbitration fees, meaning they wouldn’t have enough money to go home.
Han stepped in and covered the arbitration fees with his own money. He won the case, free of charge.
A few months later, the lawyer received a silk banner from the five migrant workers to express their appreciation.
“Migrant workers always give a letter or banner to say thanks when you offer them free legal aid,” Han tells Shanghai Daily. “That’s enough for me. I feel rewarded and motivated to do more.”
For some, the image of a successful lawyer is someone wearing a nice suit while thumbing through reference books in a well-decorated office. A timer ticks to calculate his payment as a wealthy client consults for help.
Han, 36, is different. He says his job grants him the opportunity to be socially responsible by helping vulnerable members of society fight for their legal rights.
Since 2003, he has offered free legal aid for more than 20,000 people, giving 100 legal lectures and attended more than 50 events to promote legal knowledge among ordinary people.
“Of course I have to make a living first and pay my employees, but we spend as much time and energy as we can to provide legal aid,” Han says.
Last year, Han and seven colleagues at his law firm resolved more than 200 cases, mainly for migrant workers, without charge. He and his team give lectures to migrants near their living quarters and often go to different legal aid centers in Pudong to provide help.
Han was born in a small Anhui Province village. In 1997 he was admitted to East China University of Political Science and Law. As one of a handful of young men in the village who was able to attend university, the lawyer knows he was lucky.
“I was born into a poor family and my parents couldn’t afford my college tuition fee. The other villagers raised the money to put me into university,” he says.
“So I can understand how helpless they feel when migrants face inequality and how grateful they are when you give them a hand in desperation.”
After graduating, Han found a job at a law firm in Waigaoqiao, a booming industrial zone that has more than 100,000 migrant workers.
In addition to work on his own commercial cases, the young assistant solicitor started offering some free legal aid. Most of these cases involve unpaid wages and unpaid compensation for workplace injuries.
“By helping and working on cases for migrants I also get more opportunities to practice law,” Han says. “Plus, there are not many lawyers willing to take cases from grass-roots workers.”
He still remembers his first case for legal aid. He helped lodge an appeal for a senior citizen who was physically abused by her daughter-in-law.
“I was so nervous that the judge even asked me to speak up because he couldn’t hear me,” he says.
From there, Han says he handled two or three cases a month, but his law firm and some of his partners didn’t agree with what he was doing. They thought Han was wasting too many resources while making less profits.
They also didn’t like having migrant workers, some of whom looked disheveled, in the office because they felt it embarrassed the law firm when wealthy clients were around.
In 2008, Han quit and opened his own law firm. In a show of support for Han’s efforts to help migrant workers, the Waigaoqiao township and Pudong governments provided some subsidies. They also hired him to handle some lawsuits.
“This was a surprise that I never expected,” Han says.
Now he and his firm take on about 200 legal aid cases a year. He also visits different communities to offer legal lectures and advice. He has developed a good reputation among migrant workers. For Han, the biggest challenge has been getting other lawyers to follow his lead. Many, including some of his employees who have quit, don’t want to spend the time and energy on cases they believe to be trivial.
Han doesn’t let it bother him.
“As a lawyer, I treat all my cases and clients the same and it requires a lot of responsibility on my part.
“I am glad to see more migrants come to my law firm now to exercise their legal rights,” he adds. “It is a good sign that tells us the legal system and dissemination are getting better.”
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