Ile może kosztować reforma systemu pomocy prawno-obywatelskiej w Polsce
How much we can pay for the legal aid reform in Poland

Summary/Abstract: The article attempts at estimating the costs of an institutionalized legal aid reform in Poland. A main premise behind adequate computations is the observation that the new system will not replace the existent one but will just supplement it. This is so because a complete replacement of the present informal system with a new formal one would prove economically ineffective as this act would be tantamount to depriving the already well-functioning providers of the right to give legal support to those in need. A key issue for estimating the costs of the reform consists in setting the amount of unmet demand for legal aid as well as the outflow of legal aid takers from the old to the new system, including outflows from the commercial sector of legal advice. Adequate information in this area can be found in the national questionnaire into legal aid takers with respect to their choice of legal aid providers (public, non-public, commercial) as well as with respect – in a more subtle and sophisticated manner – to the expected transition parameters from the present to the future system. Using deductive analysis, supported by data and conclusions drawn on the basis of the national questionnaires into legal aid takers and providers, the upper estimate of the total costs of the reform was fixed at the level slightly below 180 million PLN (circa 60 million USD). The measurement procedures presented in the article are of universal character and as such they can most probably be successfully employed in investigations into the costs of existent and reformed legal aid systems elsewhere, not only in Poland.

• Details
• Contents