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How do I make an application for Legal Aid Representation?
The Legal Aid Department comprises five District Legal Aid Offices which are located all over the Country – (in Beersheba, Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Haifa and Nazareth) and they provide guidance, legal advice and principally- representation.
Application can be made to any of the Legal Aid offices in several ways:
1. You can come to the Legal Aid District Office near the area in which you live and submit a written application on the Official Application Form. You must come to the Legal Aid District Office during the times in which it is open to the public.
2. You may, and it is also advisable, download from the internet, a Legal Aid Application Form and forward it by mail or by facsimile. Alternatively, you can obtain the Form at the Welfare Departments of the Local Authorities and/or in some of the voluntary organizations.
The Form is provided free of charge at all the indicated institutions.
After correctly and fully completing the Form it must be forwarded to the Legal Aid District Office in one of the ways indicated above.
What are the stages of processing an application for Legal Aid?
1. Upon receipt of the Legal Aid application an initial examination is made to determine if the conditions of entitlement to Legal Aid are fulfilled, in accordance with the conditions prescribed in the Legal Aid Law, 5732-1972 and in the Legal Aid Regulations, 5733-1973.
2. Following submission of an application officially in writing and the opening of a Case File in the District Office, you will be invited to attend a meeting with a Lawyer in the District Office to which you have applied. In certain cases and in order to make things easier for applicants who reside far from the Legal Aid District Office in whose area they reside, the Lawyers of the District Office will arrange to meet the applicants at the Welfare Offices of the Local Authorities closest to the area of their residence.
3. Following a meeting with the Lawyer, and after submitting documents that you have been asked to submit, the District Office decides whether or not you will be granted Legal Aid, and for exactly what proceedings such Legal Aid will be granted and all in accordance with the legal provisions.
At the time of the meeting with the Lawyer a number of matters will be examined:
♦ The financial eligibility for a grant of Legal Aid, apart from in exceptional cases, such as claims against the National Insurance Institute, representation of forcibly hospitalized patients and representation of cases of human trafficking, in which the financial eligibility of the applicant will not be examined.
♦ The subject of assistance in respect of which the application has been submitted, such as - civil matters, cases concerning the Execution Office, National Insurance, cases concerning personal status etc.
♦ The reasonable prospects of success in relation to the case to which the application relates from a legal standpoint, the facts and the evidence.
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Please note that even if the District Office has decided that the case involved in your application has a reasonable legal prospect of success, there is no absolute certainty that you will succeed in the legal proceedings that you are seeking to conduct. The Legal Aid District Office is not acting in a judicial capacity and a decision in the case lies solely with the Court which is the final judicial arbiter. |
If you have met the three stated conditions, in the majority of cases a Letter of Appointment is issued to an outside Lawyer, appointed on behalf of the Legal Aid Department. At the same time a letter will be sent to you stating the name of the appointed Lawyer, his address and ways of communicating with him for the further handling of your case and/or scheduling a meeting.
Denial of an application for Legal Aid and an Appeal of a decision to deny service.
On the other hand, if the decision is not to grant Legal Aid (because one of the conditions has not been satisfied) an explanatory letter will be sent to you concerning the reasons for such refusal. The explanatory letter is enclosed with the official refusal letter.
You are entitled to appeal against the decision not to grant Legal Aid to the District Court nearest to the Legal Aid office where your application was denied. Within 30 days of the date of notice of refusal having been sent or notified.
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