Hard labour for lawyers who speak only English

With more court cases being heard in Chinese, lawyers who know only English say the amount of work available for them has dropped, causing some to earn less, go into early retirement or move abroad.

Court cases were first heard in Chinese in the 1990s, followed by the introduction of a series of measures to promote a bilingual legal system. Since then, the use of Chinese in courts has taken off.

Judiciary figures show the proportion of criminal cases heard in Chinese has risen in recent years at all levels except the Court of Final Appeal, which always hears cases in English.

Chinese accounted for 86 per cent of cases involving criminal charges at magistrates' courts last year, up from 62 per cent in 2004.

More than half of the criminal trials at the District Court and a third at the Court of First Instance were in Chinese, up from 14 per cent and 24 per cent respectively.

Civil cases in the High Court have shown the opposite trend. Some say the change is good as Cantonese is the mother tongue for the vast majority of the city's population. But the situation is taking a toll on lawyers who speak only English, especially those in criminal litigation.

"Some people saw it coming. A lot of people shut their eyes and they've been a bit shocked," barrister Keith Oderberg said. "We can't stop it, nor should we."