Free Legal Assistance - Frequently Asked Questions

You must go to the Legal Guidance Services

Foreign citizens may request free justice, as long as one of these two circumstances occurs in them:

■ Let them be legal residents in Spain.

■ Illegals who are in Spain have the right to free legal assistance in the processes in which they are a party, regardless of the jurisdiction in which they are followed, Under the same conditions than Spanish citizens.
   In administrative procedures that may lead to their denial of entry, return, or expulsion from Spanish territory and in all procedures regarding international protection, they have the right to legal aid as well as the interpreter assistance if they do not understand or speak the official language used.
   In the contentious-administrative processes against the resolutions that put an end to the administrative procedure in terms of refusal of entry, return or expulsion, the recognition of the right to free legal assistance will require the appropriate application carried out in the terms provided in the rules governing free legal aid.

Obtaining the right allows the citizen to enjoy free of charge lawyer, attorney, and other professionals who must intervene in the procedure, as well as the absence of other economic costs such as the pay of court fees, the required notarial expenses, the free insertion of announcements or edicts in official newspapers, free expert assistance, exemption from the payment of deposits necessary for the filing of appeals. This situation of absence of costs will extend to the execution of the sentence and to the knowledge of the litigation in second instance by another Court, provided that it is the same procedure.

The request for free justice does not suspend the legally established deadlines of the procedure in question; notwithstanding the foregoing, the judge may ex officio or at the request of the parties, agree on the suspension of the procedure to prevent the passage of time from producing helplessness or preclusion of a proceeding.

If the applicant meets all the requirements established, you will be appointed a court-appointed attorney whenever your intervention is mandatory in the process or his appointment is required by the Judicial Branch. In this case, the lawyer will be totally free and you will not have to pay anything. In the event of not complying with these requirements, he must pay the services provided.

It is an expression used by law to refer to the assumption that the applicant to whom the Commission recognized the right to free legal assistance has substantially improved its economic capacity within the next three years to termination of process; in such a case, if in the final sentence he had been ordered to pay costs, the applicant will be obliged to pay those caused in his defense, as well as those of the opposing party.
You must appear before the Free Legal Assistance Commission, which is the body in charge of determining whether or not you are coming to better fortune.

The denial can be motivated by several circumstances:

• Your income is higher than the amounts established in article 3 of the Free Justice Law.

• There are external signs that show that they have economic capacity (article 4): in addition to their habitual residence, they own other real estate or have obtained income from movable capital (or both assumptions are met).

• The circumstances regulated in article 5 of the Law of Free Justice for the exceptional recognition of this right do not exist. In this case, the existence of various expenses (electricity, water, mortgage, credits) is not considered an exceptional circumstance, nor is it considered that the applicant has a disability and it is not related to the judicial procedure for which free justice is requested. .

You can submit a challenge (resource) before the Commission, In the ten business days after to receive the notification. If you do not file within that period, you will not be able to appeal later.
The challenge will be submitted in writing signed by the applicant, or using the model that can be downloaded on this page, and will be resolved by the corresponding judicial body. There is no appeal against this decision.

 Written challenge model 

To make the telematic presentation of any writing, other than a request for legal aid, addressed to the Free Legal Assistance Commission of the Community of Madrid, you must have one of the electronic certificates recognized by the Community of Madrid installed on the computer from which you are sending and follow the instructions indicated in the "Manual for telematic presentation of writings addressed to the Free Legal Assistance Commission".