1 / 10

Legal Aid Schemes in Norway

Legal Aid Schemes in Norway. Beate B. Ekeberg. Aarhus Convention, Task Force on Access to Justice, February 2014. Legal Aid Schemes. Legal aid in civil cases : Legal Aid Act of 13 th of June 1980 No. 35 http://www.ub.uio.no/ujur/ulovdata/lov-19800613-035-eng.pdf

kylynn-jenkins
Download Presentation

Legal Aid Schemes in Norway

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Legal Aid Schemes in Norway Beate B. Ekeberg Aarhus Convention, Task Force on Access to Justice, February 2014 Aarhus Convention, TFAJ, February 2014

  2. Legal Aid Schemes Legal aid in civil cases: Legal Aid Act of 13th of June 1980 No. 35 http://www.ub.uio.no/ujur/ulovdata/lov-19800613-035-eng.pdf Legal Aid Regulation – 2005 Legal aid in criminal cases: CriminalprocedureAct (Chapter 9; Defensecounsel) http://www.ub.uio.no/ujur/ulovdata/lov-19810522-025-eng.pdf Aarhus Convention, TFAJ, February 2014

  3. Legal aid in civil cases Sources for legal information/advice: Internet, public/privateinstitutions, lawyers & legal advisors State sponsorship of private institutionsoffering legal aid: Grants totalling 35 million NOK/year Aarhus Convention, TFAJ, February 2014

  4. Legal aid scheme in civil cases – why and to whom? Objective: Legal aid for persons withoutmeanswhensuchaid is of greatimportance to them and theirwelfare Who’s entitled? Natural persons Non-profit organizations if particular reasons Aarhus Convention, TFAJ, February 2014

  5. Legal Aid in civil cases – conditions Not covered by other schemes/manner (Ex.:Private insurance, public service/advisory offices) Subject to means testing Gross income below 31.300/47.000 € Personal assets below 12.700 € Exceptions granted by County Governor, strict assessment Pay 25% or max. NOK 4.525 (120 € if advice) Without means testing in specific cases Mostly cases where authorities consider enforcement measure against citizen Aarhus Convention, TFAJ, February 2014

  6. Legal aid in civil cases – How? Free legal advice/representation, waiver fees Given by lawyers in private practice/public law office 120€/hour (average rate otherwise +50%) By application; Lawyer providing legal aid may grant in many cases if income/assets below limits County Governor (18 of them in Norway) Court (in cases before the courts) Appeal of decision possible Aarhus Convention, TFAJ, February 2014

  7. Costs of thecivil legal aidscheme In 2010: Legal advice: 198 million NOK Representation in court: 411 million NOK A right given by law, cannot be limited by thesize of thestate legal aidbudget. Ministry of Justiceestimatesyearlycosts, does not have to fight for increasedexpenses in theyearlynationalbudgetprocess (unlessproposenewlegislationexpected to causeincreasedcosts). Aarhus Convention, TFAJ, February 2014

  8. Legal aid in criminal cases Granted by thecourts Offered by private lawyers Accused:Free legal representation of theirownchoice (mainrule) Aggrieved: Free legal representation in specified cases of violent or sexualcrimes Costs (2010) Accused (repr. in courtproceedings); 662 million NOK Aggrieved (repr. in courtproceedings); 99,7 million NOK Total cost legal aid (incl. interpretation & expertevidence for thedefense); 903 mill NOK Aarhus Convention, TFAJ, February 2014

  9. Relevance to Environmental matters Criminal cases probably less relevant, only general right for accused, no right for aggrieved party in cases of environmentalcrime (only in specified cases of violent or sexualcrimes) Civil cases probably more relevant (mainly natural persons, but possible also for non-profit organizations if particular reasons), means test apply But: No knowledge of cases in environmental matters where legal aid has beengranted Aarhus Convention, TFAJ, February 2014

  10. Thankyou! Aarhus Convention, TFAJ, February 2014

More Related