To Preserve the Past
To Serve the Present
To Enhance the Future
National Equal Justice Library
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Washington College of Law 4801 Massachusetts Ave. N.W. Washington, D.C. 20016
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INFORMATION ABOUT OTHER NATIONS' PROGRAMS PROVIDING
EQUAL ACCESS
TO JUSTICE
In this section we plan to present descriptions, statistics, and analysis of legal aid programs in countries outside the United States, and in some instance other measures these nations use which are designed to increase access to justice for lower income citizens. At this point most of the information comes from official government reports and studies. Eventually we expect this section of the website will have such data about nearly all the legal aid programs in the world -- as well as academic studies and other independent appraisals of these legal aid programs.
But we begin with a few industrial democracies whose advanced and well-funded legal aid systems have much to teach the rest of the world. (In addition, this section also provides links to many other national legal aid programs which have created useful websites.)
LINKS to other National Legal Aid WEBSITES
LINKS TO WEBSITES ABOUT OTHER NATION'S LEGAL AID PROGRAMS
In addition to the national legal aid programs featured in this website, scores of other nations have created their own websites describing the legal aid programs available in those countries. The compilation of websites below is based largely on a list compiled by Pinetree Legal Services. Members of the International Legal Aid Committee of the The National Equal Justice Library have evaluated these sites and placed them in three broad categories.
Category A lists websites presenting comprehensive information about the particular nation's legal aid system, including detailed descriptions of program design and operations, financial data, statistics, and often downloadable reports and publications.
Category B lists websites providing only general information usually aimed at potential clients and sometimes private lawyers who supply services through the program. Thus, they are only marginally useful to researchers, policymakers, legal aid administrators, and students from other countries who are interested in accessing the website to learn about a particular nation's legal aid program. [As an illustration of a typical Category B website, we have included the website for France immediately below the list of websites.]
Category C lists websites that only furnish program addresses and other contact information.
Category A Websites (with extensive information)
Multi-national Websites
National Websites
- Legal Aid Commission (New South Wales, AUSTRALIA)
- Legal Aid Queensland (Queensland, AUSTRALIA)
- Legal Services Commission of South Australia (South Australia, AUSTRALIA)
- Victoria Legal Aid (Victoria, AUSTRALIA)
- Legal Aid of Western Australia (Western Australia, AUSTRALIA)
- National Legal Aid (AUSTRALIA)
- Legal Aid Society of Alberta (Alberta, CANADA)
- Legal Services Society (British Columbia, Canada)
- Legal Aid Ontario (Ontario, CANADA)
- Aide Juridique Ontario (Ontario, CANADA)
- Ontario Legal Aid Plan (Ontaril, CANADA)
- Legal Aid (Legal Aid Board - England and Wales)
- Legal Action Group (ENGLAND AND WALES)
- Legal Aid Department (HONG KONG)
- Legal Aid Services Council (HONG KONG)
- An Bord um Chúnamh Dli (Legal Aid Board - IRELAND)
- New
Zealand Legal Services Board (NEW
ZEALAND)
- Scottish Legal Aid Board (SCOTLAND)
- Legal Aid in South Africa (SOUTH AFRICA)
- Legal Resources Centre (SOUTH AFRICA)
Category B Websites (with limited general information)
Africa
Asia
Australia
Legal Aid Forum - Towards 2010
North America
Europe
Israel
Category C Websites (with only contact information)
- Mesures Sociales - L'aide juridique (Québec, CANADA))
- Social Measures - Legal Aid (Québec, CANADA)
- Société‚ Québécoise D'Information Juridique, (Quebec, CANADA).
- Kharkiv Legal Aid Group (UKRAINE)
- Kyrgystan Legal Aid Movement (KYRGYSTAN)
- Network of Southern African Legal Aid and Legal Advice NGOs
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THE FRENCH LEGAL AID PROGRAM
[This is a typical Category B Website. As you will see, it provides a general overview of the nation's legal aid program with an emphasis on information of special interest to potential clients of the program.]
LEGAL
AID AND ADVICE IN
FRANCE
1. Who can apply for LA?
Citizens of other EU member States are entitled to apply for LA in France*, as are certain refugees and asylum-seekers (but the government is seeking a change in the Constitution to allow for stricter control of immigration).
[*] France includes Corsica; Guadeloupe and Martinique in the West Indies; Guyane in South America; Réunion in the Indian Ocean and Saint-Pierre & Miquelon off the east coast of Canada.
2. Legal information and advice (consultation)
There are legal LA Councils, Conseils départementaux de l'aide juridique (CDAJ) throughout France, which deal both with information and advice (aide à l'accès au droit), and with requests for representation and defence in court (aide juridictionnelle). Aide à l'accès au droit includes providing help for those who appear before public authorities outside the ordinary courts.
The system of providing aide à l'accès au droit is new and not (Sept. 1993)
fully in force, but it is intended to cover such things as:
- information about legal rights and duties;
- advice on how to obtain one's rights and
- help needed by an applicant who wishes to embark on
- a legal transaction (e.g. entering into a contract
- for goods, services or employment, getting married
- or divorced, etc).
3. LA for court proceedings (aide juridictionnelle)
LA for court proceedings (aide juridictionnelle) is administered by an office (Bureau d'aide juridictionnelle, BAJ) at each Palais de Justice (principal court) except in Paris, where the address is:
rue Ferrus, 4-14
75014 Paris.
If aid is refused the applicant can appeal from the BAJ to the court which is to hear the case, but there is no appeal beyond that.
Civil and Criminal LA are granted on more or less the same basis. Aid is available for one year from the date the grant is notified; it needs renewal thereafter (art 54, décret of 19 déc. 1991).
4. Eligibility tests
Merits You are normally entitled
to LA if you satisfy the means test (below) provided that your case is not
obviously without foundation. However, even this test is not applied if you are:
·
· a person whom a court may find civilly responsible for another's loss;
· a witness who needs help in order to testify (e.g. a non-French speaker);
· accused of an offence;
· a convicted person (e.g. who wishes to appeal).
4.2
Means [(1992] figures, revisable annually).
Full LA
Someone with no dependants* and a net income below
F [4400] receives full LA, and no additional fee is payable to the lawyer.
Partial LA
Someone with no dependants*:
|
net monthly income |
State contribution |
|
F.[4.400 - 4.600] |
85% |
|
F.[4.601 - 4.850] |
70% |
|
F.[4.851 - 5.200] |
55% |
|
F.[5.201 - 5.600] |
40% |
|
F.[5.601 - 6.100] |
25% |
|
F.[6.101 - 6.599] |
15% |
|
F.[6.600] or above |
0 |
* (Add F[500] for each dependant).
These figures include income from all sources, except state benefit paid to the applicant's family and certain other social welfare payments. The value of land and buildings will also be taken into account, except property which cannot be sold or used to raise a loan without serious hardship for the applicant.
The lawyer charges the client the balance of the total costs.
Applicants must produce evidence of means as required by the BAJ. In the case of cohabitees and those of other persons habitually living in the same household, the resources of all are taken together, except in cases of dispute between them about some item of property. False or misleading information about means cancels the grant and can lead to prosecution.
5. Choice of lawyer
Applicants may chose their own lawyers, but if they do not, the bâtonnier (leader of the local Bar) makes the appointment.
6. Payment of costs
If an aided party loses a civil case, he must pay his opponent's costs; they are not paid out of LA, unless for good reasons (fairness in all the circumstances, or the aided person's poverty) the judge decides otherwise. If the aided party wins, in a civil case, the costs which the loser pays go to the public purse.
7. Legal Expenses Insurance
Legal Expenses Insurance is recognised and growing in France. One clear advantage is that a policy can cover fees which, under the state scheme of partial LA, the applicant would have to pay himself.
MONACO
The Principality of Monaco has close economic ties with France and some of its companies are now subject to French tax laws. By agreement with France in 1918/19 the territory reverts to France if the reigning prince (whose House first ruled the territory in 1297) dies without a male heir. Monaco is within the EU's customs territory (see Council Regulation 2151/84 art 2, annex; OJ L197 of 27 July 1984, page 1). EU competition rules apply. It is uncertain whether free movement of persons applies.
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