The prosecution of Chen Guangcheng reminds me of the troubles that the official and semi-official local administrators took to rid their localities of 讼棍--local pettifoggers who would represent commoners in legal proceedings either against officials (usually the clerks and runners who made everyone's lives so miserable) or against other members of the community.
A lot of recent research though has shown that these 讼棍 did a lot of good in mediating community conflicts and helping local people get legal redress in times of need. If you're interested, Melissa Macauley has an excellent book called Social Power and Legal Culture: Litigation Masters in Late Imperial China. It gives a nice historical perspective on the PRCs continued aversion to legal advocacy.
Thanks J. I tend to focus much more on revolutionary and PRC-era China (for sort of obvious reasons, given my personal history), so it would be good for me to expand my horizons a bit.
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