Public Legal Aid Offices

Public Legal Aid Offices provide all sorts of legal service for persons entitled to legal aid. In the performance of their commissions, the Public Legal Aid Attorneys are independent of any other actor.

There are 46 Legal Aid Offices. Most of them are located in the vicinity of District Courts. The head of a Public Legal Aid Office is the Leading Public Legal Aid Attorney. In all, there are some 220 Public Legal Aid Attorneys and an equal number of clerical staff. The client is entitled to deal with any of the Offices, but the most convenient way is no doubt to approach the nearest one.

In addition, some of the Public Legal Aid Offices have branch offices.

The Legal Aid Offices have been divided into six legal aid districts, each of which is headed by a legal aid director. The districts are those of Turku, Vaasa, Eastern Finland, Helsinki, Kouvola and Rovaniemi; they coincide with the territorial jurisdictions of the Courts of Appeal.

The legal aid offices deal with some 56,000 legal aid matters every year.

The list of municipalities is intended for the identification of the nearest Legal Aid Office in the judicial system on the basis of the name of the municipality.

Public Legal Aid Attorneys
Municipalities
Contact information of Legal Aid Offices
Legal Aid Office home pages

Updated on 20 January 2011