Legal aid

                 Legal  aid

legal aid, device allowing at the State to assist in the loads resulting from the procedures implemented by the private individuals, when the latter cannot assume the court expenses.

The legal aid exists since the law of January 3 1972 which instituted it out of civil and administrative matter. The law of December 19, 1991 extended the applicability of what it is advisable to name from now on "jurisdictional assistance".

The jurisdictional assistance has the aim of supporting the real equality in the exercise of the rights of defense, equality which is likely to be compromised for reasons of a financial nature: the jurisdictional assistance precisely aims at bringing a help to the people who could not face the court expenses.

The jurisdictional assistance is known as "total" or "partial" according to whether the State takes responsibility for its whole or part costs of proceedings in the place of its recipient. It is a ceiling of incomes, corrected by the family loads with the load of the justiciable one, which determines the amount of this assumption of responsibility. However, the latter is always subjected to a condition of admissibility: the request can be rejected when the committed action appears inadmissible or stripped of base. If there is refusal, the decision must be justified and is likely of recourse. The purpose of the requirement of this condition is to avoid abusive procedures, possibly inspired by certain lawyers to ensure their own subsistence.

Subjected to a minimum of formalism, the request for jurisdictional assistance is informed by the office of jurisdictional assistance which is established with the seat of the Court of Bankruptcy. Composed of a magistrate and a clerk, it receives, for the requests concerning the businesses carried in front of the jurisdictions of first authority or the court of bases, the contest of a lawyer, an usher, a representative of the departmental director of the tax services, of a representative of the departmental director of the medical and social action, as well as person designated with the title of the users. The request for jurisdictional assistance is deposited by the interested person or any agent.

When it is total, the jurisdictional assistance causes to make free the recourse to the lawyer, who is then made of office and whose law envisages the exclusive compensation for the payment of all fees. This device thus facilitates the exercise of the rights of defense in the penal procedures. However, some criticize protested against the fact that, the recipient of the jurisdictional assistance losing the possibility of choosing its lawyer (indicated by the barristers president of the order starting from a list drawn up for this purpose), the relation of confidence between the justiciable one and its council, factor of the most effective possible defense, can be established less easily if the bond between the two parts proceeds not of a choice but of the chance.