The rejection of a legal aid request concerning court fees solely on the grounds that the person is represented by a lawyer constitutes a violation of the right of access to a court, which is guaranteed by the European Convention on Human Rights. Such an assessment undermines the essence of the right to a fair trial and is made without investigating the financial situation of the individuals.
The rejection of legal aid applications due to the applicant being represented by a lawyer is generally based on the assumption that: “A person who has a lawyer is in a favorable financial situation.” However, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) does not consider this assumption legally valid, and explicitly states that merely being represented by a lawyer cannot constitute a presumption of the applicant’s ability to pay. In this context, according to ECtHR case-law, every rejection decision made without evaluating the financial situation of individuals violates the right of access to a court.
In real life, a person might receive help from an acquaintance lawyer out of goodwill, grant power of attorney without paying a fee due to kinship, or may have agreed for the lawyer’s fee to be paid according to the outcome of the case and only at the end of the case. In such cases, the fact that a person is represented by a lawyer does not mean they have financial means. Therefore, courts’ rejection of a legal aid request solely on the grounds that the application was made through a representative is contrary to individuals’ rights and freedoms.
This point has been clearly emphasized in the ECtHR’s decisions in Mehmet and Suna Yiğit/Turkey (2007), Kaba/Turkey (2011), and Bakan/Turkey (2007). In the relevant cases, the right of access to court was found to have been violated due to the refusal of legal aid solely on the grounds of representation by a lawyer.
Why is Expert Lawyer Support Necessary in Individual Applications?
Individual application is one of the most sensitive stages of the legal remedy process before the Constitutional Court or the ECtHR. In this process;
- Technical criteria regarding the admissibility of the application,
- Legal argumentation consistent with previous jurisprudence,
- Effective presentation of evidence and facts
issues such as these are sensitive topics requiring expertise. Incomplete or erroneous applications carry the risk of rejection on formal grounds, and the individual’s legal remedy process is seriously jeopardized.
In complex legal areas such as legal aid, reasonable time, freedom of expression, right to property, and right to a fair trial, individual applications made without the guidance of an expert lawyer usually result in failure. This is because the ECHR and the Constitutional Court require not only a grievance, but also the clear presentation of legal assessments and grounds. Therefore, the support of individual applications with legal justifications, the effective presentation of evidence, and their preparation in a manner consistent with previous case law, makes the support of an expert lawyer in the field indispensable.
