Under the Legal Aid Regulations, 5733-1973, with respect to an application to provide a legal service, you must pay the Legal Aid Bureau a fee which consists of two parts:
1. A preliminary payment of 34 Shekels which is a condition for processing the application.
2. If a decision is made to grant Legal Aid, a supplementary payment must be made (up to a total of NIS 128).
It should be emphasized that the decision to cap a fee for a person for whom the Head of the Bureau has decided to grant the application and who is entitled to Legal Aid, will be determined according to the level of the applicant's income.
Method of payment
Making the preliminary payment is a condition for commencement of the legal handling of the case.
Before the payment is made, there is nothing to prevent a case file being opened and technical steps being taken in relation to it, such as an invitation to a meeting with the lawyer. However the application, including the holding of the meeting itself, will not be dealt with on its merits before the payment is made.
When the application for Legal Aid arrives at the Bureau through the mail, a preliminary payment voucher will be sent, unless any indication exists that you are exempt from such payment. If it has been decided, in view of what is stated in the application, not to send a voucher and during the meeting with the Lawyer, it becomes evident that there is no cause for the grant of an exemption, the meeting with the Lawyer will continue as normal but subsequently a written request for the preliminary payment will be sent to you.
Where it has been decided, following the meeting with the Lawyer that there was no cause for making a charge for the preliminary payment you will be sent a refund.
Where it has been decided, after an examination of your case, that you are entitled to Legal Aid, the amount of the advance payment will be credited on account of the Participation Fee and notification of the appointment will be attached to the notice of payment of the balance of the amount due. Depending upon the income level as aforementioned, the grant of Legal Aid is conditional on payment of the said balance and will not be provided for as long as it has not been paid.
Exemption from the fee
If you meet one of the following conditions please state this in the Application Form and you will be entitled to an exemption from the fee:
1. Regulation 3B(a) exempts the following applicants from payment of the participation fee:
A prisoner, detainee, soldier in compulsory military service (except reserve duty) a mental patient who is hospitalized in a psychiatric hospital and a minor who is entitled to representation separately from his parents when either suing or being sued other than through them.
2. Regulation 3B (b) prescribes cases in which there are exemptions from the fee, and these are:
* Legal Aid under the Hague Convention (Return of Abducted Children) Law 5751-1991 and by virtue thereof, the 1958 New York Convention as to Collection of Maintenance Abroad.
* An application for a Protection Order under the Prevention of Family Violence Law, 5751-1991. There is included in this exemption, an exemption from the fee also in the case of a grant of Legal Aid for a non-cohabitation peace of mind injunction submitted pursuant to the right to maintenance.
* Legal Aid under Section 397 of the National Insurance Law (New Version) 5755-1995.
3. Under Regulation 3B(c) the Director of the Legal Aid Department may prescribe guidelines for the grant of an exemption for payment of a fee in exceptional cases, as detailed below, when due to the applicant's income, property and debts, he is not capable of paying the fee:
(a) A female applicant who is living in a shelter for battered women will be exempt from payment of a fee in all matters relating to personal status as well as in relation to defense of other claims and the submission of urgent claims - all as aforementioned when she is staying in a shelter for battered women at the time of the decision whether to the grant of Legal Aid.
(b) An applicant who has been declared by the Execution Office to be a debtor of restricted means and is charged with making a monthly payment that does not exceed NIS250.
(c) An applicant whose debts in the Execution Office amount to more than NIS 50,000 and he has signed a declaration that he has no realizable property of more than NIS 500 in value, except for the contents of his home.
(d) An applicant, whose actual income is less than NIS 750 on average, and provided that he has furnished salary slips that confirm this. Actual income for this purpose shall be net income (after deduction of income tax, national insurance, and health insurance) and after the deduction of attachments actually deducted from salary.
(e) In an application and representation in the issue of an injunction that relates to violence in the family and the income of the applicant for Aid does not exceed a total of NIS 3,000. In this instance, this means cases in which the claim is not under a right to maintenance as stated above in the Section 2, when the need arises to exclude an adult child from the home or an injunction as between family members pursuant to a right in real estate.
4. Under Regulation 3A(c) a participation fee will be paid only once with respect to one legal case, including an appeal in the same matter and enforcement of the judgment. For such purpose, a legal case shall be deemed to be one of the various matters in respect of which Legal Aid has been sought in the course of one year from the opening of the case file in respect of it.
Where a fee has been paid and it is in reference to interrelated family affairs cases, it is good for three years. Therefore, in respect of an applicant for Legal Aid who in one year opens a civil case file and a personal status case file or case files in various civil cases, he will pay one fee according to the date on which the first case file was opened. An extension of the period of eligibility for the three-year exemption is only relevant to cases in which the case files that have been opened are for interrelated family affairs cases, as above mentioned.
It is further stipulated in the Regulations that a grant of Legal Aid with respect to the lodgment of an appeal or defense of an appeal against a judgment is exempt from payment of a fee even where a new case file has been opened for the purpose of dealing with the appeal (and the previous case file that was opened for such an applicant is outside of the eligibility period). In accordance with the Director's instructions there must also be included in this rule, proceedings for execution of a judgment pronounced within the Legal Aid framework.