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Apply for legal aid or assistance with legal costs
You will incur various costs as part of court proceedings. You must first use your income and, if reasonable, your assets.
If you need financial help with this, you can apply for legal aid. This also applies if you can only bear part of the costs of court proceedings or only in instalments. In family matters and in matters of voluntary jurisdiction, legal aid is known as procedural cost aid.
You will receive legal aid without paying in instalments if you have less than 20 euros per month at your disposal after deducting the following expenses and allowances:
Expenses:
- for taxes,
- Pension expenses,
- Business expenses and
- reasonable housing and heating costs.
Allowances:
- for you: EUR 619.00
- for a husband or wife or for a civil partner under the Civil Partnership Act (Lebenspartnerschaftsgesetz) without their own income, the amount is increased by EUR 619.00
- for each additional person to whom you provide maintenance. Assuming a statutory maintenance obligation, the amounts are increased by:
- eUR 393.00 for children under 6 years of age
- eUR 429.00 for children aged 6 to under 14
- eUR 518.00 for young people aged 14 to under 18
- 496.00 EUR for persons aged 18 and over
- for employed persons: an additional EUR 282.00
If your income to be used is EUR 20 or more, the court can order a monthly instalment payment or refuse legal aid. An exact calculation is only possible in each individual case.
Legal aid covers the court costs. It only covers the costs of your own lawyer if the court has appointed a lawyer.
Please note: Legal aid does not cover your opponent's costs, for example their lawyer's fees. If you lose the legal dispute, you will have to reimburse these costs. Exceptions only apply in labour court disputes and in some family matters and matters of voluntary jurisdiction.
Forms/Online Services
Responsible authority
the court in which the proceedings or enforcement is being conducted
Details
Prerequisite
- You are unable to raise the necessary funds due to your personal and financial circumstances.
- The court's decision you are seeking has a prospect of success.
- Exercising your rights is not wilful. Willfulness exists if you do not behave like a person who would have to bear the costs themselves and who would reasonably refrain from exercising their rights.
Please note: Legal aid will not be granted if the following persons have to pay the costs due to statutory maintenance obligations:
- Your husband or wife,
- Your civil partner, or
- in the case of an unmarried child, a parent or parents
Procedure
You can submit your application for legal aid in writing or on the record at the court registry. At the same time, you must enclose the completed form "Declaration of personal and financial circumstances for legal aid" with your application. You can also complete the form step by step and with additional explanations using a new online service from the Federal Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection, after which you can decide whether you want to send the completed form digitally or print it out and submit it on paper.
In the application, you must describe the dispute in detail and in full. You should also state any evidence you have.
If you need help with the application, you can contact the court or a lawyer's office. The application can also be submitted by a lawyer.
The competent office will check
- whether and to what extent you can cover the costs of the proceedings yourself and
- whether the other requirements for authorisation are met. The court will also decide whether you will be assigned a lawyer to represent you.
It will then make a decision, which you will receive in writing.
The decision contains information on
- whether and to what extent you will receive legal aid and
- if applicable, the amount and number of instalments for the Repayment.
Please notethe competent authority regularly checks whether the conditions for legal aid are still met. If there is a significant change in your personal or financial circumstances, the court can redefine the scope or revoke the authorisation.
Cautionfalse statements can lead to the competent authority cancelling the authorisation decision. The same applies if you are more than three months in arrears with an instalment payment or fail to submit the required documents after being requested to do so.
Deadlines
none
Required documents
- Passport or identity card
- Proof of income or tax assessment notice
- Rental agreement (reasonable rental costs will be taken into account)
- other evidence of expenses, income and assets
Costs
none
Miscellaneous
The competent authority will only grant you legal aid for the respective court instance, for example the proceedings before the local court.
For subsequent proceedings, for example before the regional court, you must apply for legal aid again. This also applies to
- the enforcement of a judgement after winning a case,
- an appeal or complaint after losing a case,
- appeal or complaint proceedings at the instigation of your opponent.
The legal clerks at the Legal Applications Office or the Registry will help you free of charge with the formulation of applications or declarations intended for submission to the competent court. This also applies to questions regarding the application for the appointment of a lawyer. As far as possible, the Rechtspfleger at the Rechtsantragstelle will advise you themselves or refer you to the relevant competent office.
Legal basis
Zivilprozessordnung:
- § 114 Voraussetzungen
- § 115 Einsatz von Einkommen und Vermögen
Release note
Machine generated, based on the German release by: Justizministerium Baden-Württemberg, 09.01.2026
