Applications for Legal Aid

The Central Authority is the intermediary organ for applications for legal aid under Council Directive 2002/8/EC of 27 January 2003 to improve access to justice in cross-border disputes by establishing minimum common rules relating to legal aid and the 1980 Hague Convention on international access to justice. The Regulation is applicable in all EU Member States with the exception of Denmark. Instead, between Denmark and some Member States, the Strasbourg agreement is applicable. Persons resident in the territory of a state party to the Conventions or the Regulation who wish to apply for legal aid in matters of a civil, commercial or administrative nature in the territory of another state party to the Convention, the Agreement or the Regulation, may submit an application to this effect in their own state. Please observe that neither of these agreements apply to requests related to criminal cases.

When legal aid of this type is requested for a legal matter in another country, the application is sent to the Central Authority to be forwarded to the Central Authority of the other state. When such legal aid is requested for a legal matter in Sweden, the application is sent to the Swedish Central Authority which forwards it to the National Legal Aid Authority in Sundsvall or, if a case is in progress at a court, directly to the court.

Information about legal aid in Sweden is available at the National Courts Administration's website.

The form for transmission of requests, which can be found under external links in the column to the right, is applicable both under the Regulation and the Strasbourg agreement.