Legal aid is evolving.
Since January 1, this device is intended to be simpler.
A decree published the day before modifies the conditions of access to this aid, which is now calculated on the sole tax reference income (RFR).
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Legal aid is the mechanism which guarantees every French citizen the right to legal aid, whatever their income level.
About a million people use it every year.
This assistance is not limited to the summons of a lawyer appointed in criminal proceedings, it also applies to other subjects, for the settlement of a divorce or a housing dispute for example.
Simplify income thresholds
The previous arrangement provided for “
resources of all kinds
” to
be taken into account
, with many exceptions.
From now on, only the RFR is authentic.
From now on, any single person whose annual reference tax income is less than 11,262 euros can claim full legal aid.
People whose RFR is between this amount and 16,890 can claim partial legal aid.
Corrections are always applied, but they only depend on the number of dependents.
To these conditions of resources, were added conditions of savings and patrimony.
For movable assets (savings), the threshold is set at 11,262 euros, for real estate assets (excluding main residence and professional premises), this ceiling reaches 33.7902 euros.
Congestion and continued growth in spending
“
The objective is to make things more fluid,
” explains Philippe Gosselin, LR deputy for La Manche and author of a report for the National Assembly on the issue in 2019. “
Simplifying the thresholds avoids the administrative headache of fetching CAF income, pensions, missing information…
”he adds.
In the report - written with the LREM deputy Naïma Moutchou - the deputies remark that legal aid is "a
victim of its success
".
The number of requests has indeed increased from 388,250 in 1992 to 985,110 in 2017. The deputies authors of the report draw two consequences: “
a congestion of the legal aid offices
”, as well as a “
continuous growth of aid expenditure. jurisdictional
”.
In fact, the cost of the device fell from 317 million euros in 2013 to 484 million in 2019.
The other contribution of this decree and the digitization it initiates.
While appeals to legal aid offices previously had to be in writing, it will now be possible to submit requests online.
"
A considerable time saving for lawyers, and for litigants
", welcomes Philippe Gosselin.
For lawyers, insufficient reform
This year's Finance Law provides for 534 million euros allocated to legal aid, or 50 million more than previously.
“
It's a good thing,
rejoices Philippe Gosselin,
but there is nothing to be proud of,
immediately resumed the deputy who demanded 100 million euros of additional budget
.
When we compare this figure to the number of inhabitants, we are far behind Sweden or the United Kingdom, whose figures are six to seven times higher
”.
Among lawyers, this reform misses a fundamental point: a real revaluation of the unit of value, the scale which makes it possible to invoice their services.
Admittedly, the decree increases this "UV" from 32 to 34 euros (a unit of value is considered equivalent to half an hour of work), but it is below the 40 euros hoped for by the profession and claimed by the report. parliamentary.
"
When we know that the fixed costs of a firm amount to 80 euros per hour on average, when the State pays you 68 euros per hour, you lose 12 euros per hour
, explains Me Demersseman, lawyer in Montpellier and chairman of the “Access to rights” commission of the French Lawyers' Union.
Not working is better for you.
But we do it because we have to defend these people
”.
For Me Demersseman, real reforms remain to be built.
The most important: widening the scope of legal aid, which today is essentially confined to criminal matters.
“
But for that, you need money,
” he says.