History

These measures are enacted pursuant to Paragraph 2 to Article 37 of the Gender Equality in Employment Act (hereinafter referred to as the Act).

When an employee or an applicant pursues a lawsuit in the court because of his or her employer is in violation of the Act, he or she may apply for legal aid from the competent authority.
The items of legal aid referred to in the preceding paragraph are as follows:
(1) Legal counseling.
(2) Attorney fees arising from drafting legal documents in civil lawsuit.
(3) Attorney fees arising from civil lawsuit procedures, security procedures, supervision procedures and compulsory enforcement procedures.

The fees arising from drafting legal documents by the attorneys referred to in Item (2) of the preceding Article, shall be reimbursed by no more than NT$5,000 per trial. The maximum reimbursement shall be limited to NT$15,000 for handling the whole case.
When applying for the reimbursement referred to in the preceding paragraph, the applicant shall submit the following documents:
1.Application form.
2.Receipts for the fees of drafting legal documents by the attorneys.
3.Documents certifying the applicant’s financial position and any related supporting documents, provided that the relevant proof shall be submitted separately, in the case of circumstances under which revenue or assets may be withheld as referred to in Paragraph 2 of Article 8-1 herein.
Where the submissions referred to in the preceding paragraph are incomplete and the applicant fails to make corrections within 15 days upon receipt of the notice, the application will not be processed.

The standards for providing attorneys' fees referred to in Item (3) of Article 2 of the Act are as follows:
(1) For an individual applicant in a civil lawsuit procedures, the maximum amount of aid shall be limited to N.T.$ 50,000 per trial and N.T.$ 120,000 the whole case. For joint applicants, the maximum amount of aid shall be limited to N.T.$ 100,000 per trial and N.T.$ 300,000 for handling the whole case.
(2) For an applicant in a security procedure, the maximum amount of aid shall be limited to N.T.$ 30,000 for handling the whole case.
(3) For an applicant in a supervision procedure, the maximum amount of aid shall be limited to N.T.$ 10,000 for handling the whole case.
(4) For an applicant in a compulsory enforcement procedure, the maximum amount of aid shall be limited to N.T.$ 40,000 for handling the whole case.

When applying for aid referred to in Paragraph 2 to Article 2 of the Act, the applicant shall submit the following documents:
1.Application form.
2.Document for the appointment of attorney.
3.Receipts of attorney fees and the following documents.
4.Documents certifying the applicant’s financial position and any related supporting documents, provided that the relevant proof shall be submitted separately, in the case of circumstances under which revenue or assets may be withheld as referred to in Paragraph 2 of Article 8-1 herein.
5.Related documents certifying the scope of reimbursement as requested:
(1)In the first trial of civil lawsuit procedure: a duplicate or photocopy of the complaint document.
(2)In the second or third trial of civil lawsuit procedure: an appeal or response document and photocopies of the court decisions in the first or second trial.
(3)In security procedures: application documents for provisional seizure or provisional execution procedures and photocopy of the related court rulings.
(4) In the supervision procedures: application documents for payment orders and photocopy of the related rulings.
(5) In compulsory enforcement procedures: application documents for compulsory enforcement and photocopies of related verification documents.
If the required documents for the application referred to in the preceding paragraph are incomplete, the competent authority shall inform the applicant to submit them within fifteen days. In case that the documents are still incomplete after the expiration of the above-mentioned period, the application shall not be accepted and considered.

In order to examine and review the applications for legal aid referred to in Items (2) and (3) of Article 2 of the Act, the competent authority shall establish an examination and review panel. The panel shall have seven members. Among them, four members shall be drawn from experts and scholars, and other members shall be appointed by the competent authority to serve on a part-time basis. There shall be one member assigned to serve as the chairperson. The members of the panel shall serve a two-year term; when a member leaves the post, the replacement shall serve until the term of the original member expires.
Members of the examination and review panel of either gender shall be no less than one-third of the members.
Members of the examination and review panel shall withdraw in accordance with Articles 32 and 33 of the Administrative Procedures Act while examining and reviewing applications for legal aid.

The examination and review panel shall be in session when over one-half of its members attend. The members shall attend the meeting in person when the panel is in session,.
In the case of which the chairperson is in absence, a member in attendance shall be designated as a substitute chairperson.
The members of the examination and review panel shall receive no salary for their work. However, for members drawing from experts and scholars, they may receive transportation allowances under the existing regulations.

Under one of the following circumstances, applications for legal aid may not be granted:
(1)The competent authority has not determined that the employer has been in violation of the related provisions of the Act.
(2)The same item in the identical incident has already received legal aid provided for by the court or has already applied for and received aid from the central or local competent authorities.
(3)The applicant is considered as having a sufficiency of financial resources based on his/her financial conditions.
(4)The result of the lawsuit is without any substantial benefit or is without any hope of prevailing.

The applicant will be considered having sufficient financial resources referred to in subparagraph 3 of the preceding Article if he/she meets one of the following circumstances when filing the application:
1.Where the applicant earned an average monthly revenue of over NT$75,000 in total within the most recent year.
2.Where the applicant owns assets of more than NT$3 million in total, exclusive of the own real property registered in the name of the applicant.
If an applicant has to pay regular expenses needed to take care of family members suffering critical injuries or diseases, or the applicant is a financially insufficient single parent providing for his or her children and looking after lineal relatives and not deducting part of the income or assets in income or asset calculation would obviously be inconsistent with the purpose of such aid, such part of income or assets may be deducted.

When a lawsuit is originated in the same incident in the identical business entity and the persons involved are over three, they shall jointly apply for legal aid and shall be limited to one case. However, when the examination and review group decides that justifiable reason exists, the above-mentioned limitation shall not apply.

The documents and forms referred to in these Regulations shall be designated by the central competent authority.

These regulations shall be effective on the date of promulgation.