What is free legal aid?
Free legal aid is addressed to all individuals struggling with legal problems. At the free legal aid facilities, professional lawyers present individuals their rights and obligations and solutions to their problems.
Professional lawyers may also help citizens to prepare the relevant documents, such as a lawsuit, a request for exemption from costs, or a request for a public defender.
Free legal aid is for individuals with legal problems and is given by professional lawyers with adequate experience, such as e.g., attorneys, legal counsels, or attorney or counsel trainees.
Who can benefit from free legal aid?
Free legal aid is available to all individuals who would not be able to afford a lawyer. Self-employed entrepreneurs might also benefit from free aid.
How can I sign up for an advice?
- by phone – calling the given Poviat registration number;
- online – sending an email to the given Poviat’s designed email or filling the form available at https://zapisy-np.ms.gov.pl;
- in person – at a Poviat’s Hall.
Attention! As a result of the pandemic some Poviats offer consultations in person and others remotely. You can check that by calling each Poviat’s hotline, checking out their website, or going to the sign up for free aid website (https://zapisy-np.ms.gov.pl).
What do I have to bring with me?
For in person consultations attending in person, a written declaration stating the inability to afford paid legal help is required.
Attention! Case data are collected anonymously and are not correlated with the written declaration stating the inability to afford paid legal help. Technically, it means that the case data are never presented next to the individuals’ personal information.
Entrepreneurs submit:
- a written declaration stating their inability to afford paid legal help;
- a written declaration confirming that they had no employees within the previous year;
- all the de minimis statements, including agriculture and fishing, about the aid received within the year where the free legal aid was requested and within the two previous fiscal years, or declarations with the aid amount during that period, or declarations confirming no aid was received during that period.
Where can I get free legal aid?
Citizens advice is offered at around 1500 facilities in Poland, in every Poviat. You do not have to sign up for a consultation in the Poviat of your residence. You might sign up at the most convenient location.
To check those facilities out and sign up for a consultation, click HERE.
Poviat, Local Government, and City Halls, and their respective websites, also feature information about the available facilities.
Can I benefit from free legal aid if I am disabled?
Free aid is also available to individuals with special needs. They may benefit from it. Special requests at consultations (such as a sign language interpreter) should be signaled upon sign-up or immediately afterwards.
Individuals with severe physical disabilities, who are not able to leave their home, and those with communication difficulties, as stated in the Bill of rights from the 19th of August 2011 on sign language and other means of communication, might also ask for a consultation at a different location or for a remote consultation, by phone or using an online communicator, independently of the epidemic situation.
For more information on free aid for people with special needs, click HERE.