Legal aid: a new online service to facilitate applications and reduce delays

Legal aid is a mechanism that enables anyone with insufficient resources to receive legal aid from the State. Lawyers' fees, notaries' fees, commissioners of justice... you can call on legal aid for all types of procedures, the costs will be fully or partially covered, depending on your situation. The assistance is paid directly to the legal professionals you use.

After several years of experimentation and gradual deployment in the courts, the online service for making legal aid easier to use is operational.

How do I access the online service?

The “Legal aid” platform makes it easier to approach the State to cover your legal costs and helps reduce processing times by court officials.

You can apply online if you want to go to court or if you are summoned before a French court of first instance or an appeal court (except New Caledonia, French Polynesia and Saint Pierre and Miquelon).

Go to the site justice.fr and choose "Apply for Legal Aid".

Or go directly to the legal aid portal on which you will be able to connect via France Connect and then start your process.

Your application is pre-filled thanks to the information provided by FranceConnect and the Directorate-General for Public Finance. You can access the 24-hour online follow-up of your request from your personal area.

What costs are covered by legal aid?

Legal aid shall cover the following costs:

• fees of lawyers, notaries and commissioners of justice;
• the costs of summoning a witness by the Commissioner of Justice;
• costs connected with the conduct of legal proceedings;
• the costs of implementing the judgment.

Careful, it doesn't cover the amount of money you may be ordered to pay (damages, fines, etc.).

For more information on legal aid, to check your eligibility or to estimate the amounts of aid, see the Service-Public.fr : Legal aid