Legal Aid in Finland Reykjavik Jouko Pelkonen, Advocate

 Attorney and partner at Apajalahti, Etelämäki, Pelkonen & Niemi Oy, Attorneys- at- Law Ltd. since 2001  The Board Member at the Finnish Bar Association  Jouko Pelkonen

 Questionary to 25 colleagues around Finland  Strenghts and areas for improvement of Finnish Legal Aid System and how it should be developed  Research: Public Legal Aid in the Viewpoint of Attorneys and other private lawyers, published by The National Research Institute of Legal Policy  Cases in practice since 1992 Facts of Presentation

 Total amount of Legal Aid cases in 2013 was  Private Sectors plead  Client can choose attorney mainly in the case of court proceedings Statistics 1/3

 Year 2013 Legal Aid court proceedings:  80 % General courts  11 % Administrative courts  9 % cases outside court proceedings, mainly proceedings in accordance of Aliens Act Statistics 2/3

 Types of Proceedings:  60% Criminal Proceedings  15 % Proceedings in accordance of Aliens Act  14 % Family Proceedings e.g. custody disputes, confirming or altering the maintenance allowance  7 % Traditional civil law cases  4 % Other cases Statistics 3/3

 Housing disputes  Property disputes  Demand of payment  Employment disputes  Equality cases  Private loan arrangements Legal Aid civil law proceedings

 Structure and Development  Client structure differs from State Legal Aid Offices client structure  The amount of Legal Aid clients is growing  Especially proceedings in accordance of Aliens Act is growing  Residence permit  Asylum interviews, Asylum applications  Citizenship applications Clients of Private Attorneys

 Based on the answers Legal Aid is good source of assignments  Legal Aid System functions pretty well  The payer of the fees is reliable  Electronic Legal Aid petition system works well What is good in Legal Aid System

Problematics Low level of legal aid fees Too low income limit for clients Structural problems

 Attorneys do not want to take demanding assignments with the fee that Legal Aid covers  Attorney services decrease in countryside and sparsely populated area  New attorneys find their way to company law instead of Legal Aid cases Low Level Legal Aid Fee

 Legal Aid clients can not afford to pay their percentage of Attorneys fee  Attorney do not have means to collect unpaid bill  Legal Aid cases lose their cost-effectiveness Too Low Income Limit for Clients

 Attorneys are questioning the operation model of State Legal Aid Offices  State Legal Aid Offices should focus on judicial counseling  Attorneys access to all Legal Aid cases  Present Legal Aid Model is expensive Structural problems

 How to offer Legal Aid with reasonable cost  How to reach all those who need Legal Aid  How to preserve Legal Aid cases economically profitable  How to preserve Legal Aid Attorneys services also outside metropolitan area and larger cities Challenges of Future

 State Legal Aid offices focus on judicial counseling  Access to all Legal Aid cases for private sector  Income limit reform for Legal Aid clients Lines of Development for Future

Thank you! Takk! Tack! Tak! Kiitos!