Free legal aid, one million poor people will not have the right to a lawyer (paid for by the State) – Corriere.it

One million poor people cut off from free legal aid, legal assistance at the expense of the State for those who are below a certain income threshold. this is the effect of the decree just published in the Official Gazette by the Ministry of Justice. A document that fixes, by slightly lowering, the new income ceiling for accessing legal aid without considering skyrocketing inflation.

The reference two-year period

The technical question but its repercussions concern access to justice for the most fragile subjects. As also reported by the forensic congress body (Ocf), the adjustment established by article 77 of the Consolidated law on justice expenses which provides that the consumer price index for blue-collar families in the two-year period prior to the update is taken as a reference of the threshold. The ministry has taken as a reference not the last two years (2020-2022) but the one 2018-2020 when inflation was not yet galloping. The result? Given the 0.1% drop in the price index, the ceiling goes from 11,746.68 to 11,734.93 euros. Crumbs only in appearance.

New decree, old parameters

The crux is in fact the failure to adjust to inflation, which began its run from 2020 with an overall increase in prices of 9.2%. Using this value as a reference, the ceiling for access to free legal aid should have risen to 12,827 euros. We are talking about over a thousand euros more. In summary, we are faced with a new decree with data that are four years old. According to Ocf estimates, the ministerial error excludes a potential audience of one million people in economic difficulty. Who will be denied access to justice, barring further corrections.