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A baby is being treated for kidney stones in a hospital. (China Photos/Getty Images)
CHINA—Hundreds of parents of children sickened from consuming tainted milk-products have yet to see the Chinese authorities announce any compensation policy. They have discussed the possibility of filing a class action lawsuit or submitting their individual cases to higher courts, with a volunteer group of lawyers.
“The Volunteer Group of Lawyers for the Sanlu Incident” has recruited lawyer volunteers across China since the tainted-milk scandal broke. However, since late September some lawyers were forced to quit the group due to pressure from officials in some provinces and from lawyer associations.
Thus far the volunteer group still has over 100 lawyers, and has been offering their pro-bono help to over 2,000 parents of tainted-milk infant victims.
A newsletter published by the group reported on October 5 that officials in the Hebei Provincial Justice Department interviewed or called some volunteer lawyers, as well as these lawyers’ supervisors, in Hebei Province on September 27, specifically requesting these lawyers to withdraw from the group.
One of the volunteer lawyers, Mr. Lin said that the Hebei Provincial Justice Department called for a meeting at the Justice Department to include directors of all the law firms in Hebei Province, and that these directors were not allowed to go home until they called and asked the volunteer lawyers in their law firms to quit the volunteer group.
Beijing Lawyer Li Jinglin also felt the pressure from the authorities. The Beijing Lawyers Association invited him and four other lawyers to a meeting. “The assistant secretary of the association said that the Party and the government view our work as having a negative impact. He did not specify that we should not do it, and perhaps he won’t specify this to other volunteer lawyers either. But I just feel that the government is not happy with what we are doing,” said Mr. Li.
Lu Jun, host of a popular website for hepatitis B carriers' human rights in China, is also one of the volunteers. He said that more lawyers continue to join the volunteer group. But over thirty lawyers have already quit.
“Recently, more and more parents have inquired about filing lawsuits, and some have expressed their wishes to file a class action lawsuit. Some parents also hoped that our lawyers could handle their cases.”
The legal advice group considers the best solution to be a class action lawsuit, which can save legal resources, and also save parents’ money so that they will suffer less damage in the future, since many parents are worried about complications their children may have to deal with down the road.