Prague, July 21 (CTK) – State-paid legal aid to lower-income people will be extended to include legal advice, representation in administrative proceedings and in proceedings before the Constitutional Court (US), according to a deputies’ amendment the Czech Senate passed late on Thursday.
The legislation is yet to be signed by President Milos Zeman.
The state will pay verbal legal advise to people with an income below three times subsistence level.
After paying 100 crowns, the applicants will be able to turn to the Czech Bar Association.
The low-income people will be entitled to meetings which do not last more than two hours in total annually, according to the legislation.
The state-guaranteed legal aid to the poorer will be also extended to administrative proceedings, which means offices’ decision-making on the rights and duties of people.
The state will reward a lawyer whom the Bar Association will choose to represent a low-income complainant before the US.
The Justice Ministry, which drafted the amendment, will pay about 34 million crowns without VAT annually for the free legal aid.
According to the amendment, a lawyer who would breach the duty to be insured could be deleted from the list of lawyers. Now, disciplinary proceedings can be launched against such a lawyer.
A person who would repeatedly provide legal services for payment without authorisation can be fined up to three million crowns. The Justice Ministry can impose a sanction of up to 200,000 crowns on a person who would use the label of “lawyer” without authorisation.
Similar penalties will be imposed on persons providing notary services and distrainer’s activities without authorisation.
