If I am entitled to legal aid, do I have to pay the costs?

Question

José Manuel Alburquerque · Accepted Answer

Legal aid (“justicia gratuita”) does not prevent the judge from ordering you to pay the costs if you lose, but you will only have to pay them if your financial situation improves within the three years following the end of the case. In that case you would pay the other side's costs and also those of your own defence. If you win and the judge orders the other side to pay the costs, it is that party that pays them. If you win but there is no costs order, you will have to pay the costs of your own defence out of what you obtain, up to a maximum of one third of the amount obtained. If you lose Costs are the expenses of the case that the judge can order one of the parties to pay, above all the fees of the other party's lawyer and court agent (“procurador”). The judge decides on them under the usual rules, whether or not the losing party has legal aid. The difference lies in the payment. If you are ordered to pay the costs, the Legal Aid Act (“Ley de Asistencia Jurídica Gratuita”) only obliges you to pay the other side's costs and those of your own defence if your financial situation improves within the three years following the end of the proceedings. In the meantime, that debt does not become time-barred. The law presumes that your financial situation has improved in two cases: If your income and resources, from all sources, exceed twice the limit set by law for legal aid. If the circumstances on which the right was granted to you change substantially, for example because you receive a large inheritance. This is declared by the Legal Aid Commission (“Comisión de Asistencia Jurídica Gratuita”). Its decision can be challenged before the judge. If the three years pass without your financial situation improving, you will no longer have to pay them. If you win If the judge orders the other side to pay the costs, that party has to pay the corresponding amount for the lawyer and the court agent assigned to you. Those professionals collect it directly and repay whatever they had received from public funds for that case. If you win, but the judge does not order the other side to pay the costs, you will have to pay those of your own defence out of what you obtain in the case. That said, never more than one third of what you obtain. If they are higher, they are reduced to that amount. When you would pay everything These advantages are lost if the right is revoked. This happens if false information was given or decisive information was concealed to obtain it. It also happens if, at the end of the case, the judge finds abuse of rights, recklessness, bad faith or evasion of the law. In those cases you would have to pay the fees of the professionals assigned to you and, if a costs order is made against you, the costs.