Legal aid in Finland

Abstract

The chapter describes and analyses civil legal aid in Finland. It gives a brief introduction to the history and development of the Finnish legal aid scheme, a detailed description of the current system and its functioning, and the relation to the welfare state. Third sector legal aid initiatives and legal aid policy are also discussed. In general, the Finnish system is notable for its reliance on public legal aid offices and liberal eligibility criteria. The public legal aid offices are supplemented by judicare lawyers, in a mixed legal aid model. The model gives access to legal assistance in a holistic and quasi-universal way. However, also the Finnish model is challenged by issues such as funding cuts and critique of lacking independence. Current developments of the scheme strive to meet these challenges, by implementing new measures such as e-services and other modern legal aid approaches.