Le­gal aid

Do you need legal assistance?
You can apply for legal aid from any legal aid office, irrespective of where you live.

What does legal aid mean?

Legal aid is help in legal matters, paid for by the state. You can use legal aid if you need help from a lawyer but you do not have the money to pay for it yourself. Legal aid may be entirely free of charge, or you may have to pay only a part of the costs. Whether you need to pay at all depends on your financial circumstances.

As a rule, legal aid is not granted if the applicant has comprehensive legal expenses insurance covering the matter in question. Before you apply for legal aid, check whether you have legal expenses insurance that covers the matter.

The vic­tim of se­ri­ous vi­o­lent crime or sex­ual crime may be pro­vided with a trial coun­sel at the ex­pense of the state, re­gard­less of his or her fi­nan­cial sta­tus. In cer­tain sit­u­a­tions, the de­fen­dant in a crim­i­nal trial is guar­an­teed an ad­vo­cate at the state’s ex­pense, re­gard­less of their fi­nan­cial sit­u­a­tion.

What can you receive legal aid for?

The National Legal Services Authority’s legal aid offices provide legal services for all legal matters.

• Family and inheritance law: divorces, division of assets, maintenance, child custody, wills and estate inventories.
• Debt and wealth: debt restructuring, enforcement, commercial disputes.
• Employment and lease relationships: cancellation of an employment contract, outstanding wages, eviction, lease agreements.
• Criminal matters: assisting the victim of a crime, restraining order, defending a suspect.
• Administrative matters: complaints about Kela compensation, social assistance or taking a child into care.

Legal aid can also be granted for other legal issues.

Where and how can you apply for legal aid?

You can apply for legal aid from any legal aid office, irrespective of where you live. The most practical approach is to use the services by telephone, online or at the nearest office.

The state has pub­lic le­gal aid of­fices for grant­ing the le­gal aid

In them, the le­gal aid is pro­vided by pub­lic le­gal aid at­tor­neys. The official title of a lawyer working at a state legal aid office is public legal aid attorney. Public legal aid attorneys perform legal work and they shall adhere to proper professional conduct when representing a client in court.

In trial mat­ters, le­gal aid is pro­vided by, in ad­di­tion to pub­lic le­gal aid at­tor­neys, lawyers and li­censed trial coun­sels. In other mat­ters, le­gal aid is pri­mar­ily pro­vided by pub­lic le­gal aid at­tor­neys.