City Administration of the City of Smederevo
Omladinska 1, city service centre, office no. 11
Tel. 026/672-724, ext. 1624
All citizens with permanent or temporary residence in the territory of the City of Smederevo may apply for free legal aid under certain conditions.
Conditions for exercising the right to free legal aid
Free legal aid may be provided to a citizen of the Republic of Serbia, a stateless person, a foreign national with permanent residence in the Republic of Serbia and any other person entitled to free legal aid under another law or a ratified international treaty, if the person:
- meets the requirements to receive financial social assistance under the law governing social protection or child allowance under the law governing financial support for families with children; free legal aid may also be provided to members of their family or joint household, as defined by those laws;
- does not meet the requirements to receive financial social assistance or child allowance, but would meet them as a result of paying for legal aid in the specific legal matter from their own income.
A person against whom the applicant for free legal aid is bringing proceedings for protection from domestic violence or other protection proceedings is not considered a member of the family or joint household of the person referred to in paragraph 1 of this Article. The income and assets of the person against whom protection proceedings are brought do not affect the applicant’s right to free legal aid if the applicant meets the requirements set out in paragraph 1 of this Article.
Free legal aid may also be provided to a citizen of the Republic of Serbia, a stateless person, a foreign national with permanent residence in the Republic of Serbia and any other person entitled to free legal aid under another law or a ratified international treaty if the person is:
- a child whose right, obligation or legally based interest is being decided in proceedings before a court, another state body or a public authority;
- a person subject to the security measure of compulsory psychiatric treatment and confinement in a healthcare institution, or to the protective measure of compulsory psychiatric treatment;
- a person subject to proceedings for the partial or full deprivation or restoration of legal capacity;
- a person seeking legal protection from domestic violence;
- a person seeking legal protection from torture, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, or human trafficking;
- a person seeking asylum in the Republic of Serbia;
- a refugee, a person under subsidiary protection or an internally displaced person;
- a person with a disability;
- a child placed in residential care within the social protection system;
- a child or young person whose residential social care has ended, until they reach the age of 26;
- an adult or older person placed in a social protection institution without their consent;
- a person exercising the right to have the time and place of their birth determined under the law governing non-contentious proceedings;
- a person affected by forced eviction and relocation proceedings under the law governing housing.
Even if the person meets the requirements, free legal aid may not be provided in:
- commercial disputes;
- proceedings for the registration of legal entities;
- proceedings for compensation for damage to honour and reputation;
- proceedings before a misdemeanour court, if the offence is not punishable by imprisonment;
- proceedings in which the value of the dispute would be clearly and significantly disproportionate to the costs of the proceedings;
- proceedings in which the applicant for free legal aid clearly has no prospect of success, in particular if their expectations are not based on the facts and evidence they have presented, or are contrary to the law in force, public order and good morals;
- cases where there is an obvious attempt to abuse the right to free legal aid or any other right.
The provider is not obliged to provide free legal aid to a beneficiary:
- who makes the provision of free legal aid conditional on the final outcome or success of the proceedings;
- who does not behave towards the provider within the limits of the law;
- if there is a conflict of interest between the beneficiary and the provider, or a person providing free legal aid on the provider’s behalf, under the law governing the prevention of conflicts of interest;
- if free legal aid was granted contrary to this Law.
A provider who refuses to provide free legal aid shall immediately inform the beneficiary and the authority that grants legal aid (Article 27).
Submitting an application
The application form for free legal aid can be obtained at the public services counter in the city service centre or at the office of the free legal aid provider, or downloaded from the City of Smederevo website.
The application can be submitted by post, in person at the public services counter in the city service centre of the City Administration of the City of Smederevo, or electronically, in accordance with the law, to the email address: pravna.pomoc@smederevo.ls.gov.rs
The application may be submitted through a legal representative, an authorised representative or a person designated by the applicant, in which case proof of the legal representative’s authority or the power of attorney must be enclosed with the application.
An application for free legal aid is not subject to a fee.
The application contains:
the applicant’s full name, permanent/temporary residence and telephone number,
a description of the problem for which free legal aid is sought, together with any documents relating to the problem that the applicant has.
Information on supporting documents
With the application, the applicant may submit a certificate, a final decision of a state body or another document proving that the applicant meets the requirements for free legal aid, namely:
- Recipients of financial assistance through the Centre for Social Work should submit the ruling of the Centre for Social Work,
- Unemployed persons should submit a certificate from the National Employment Service,
- Employees receiving a salary should submit a statement of earnings from their employer,
- Pensioners should submit their latest pension slip,
- Persons claiming rights related to the status of disabled war veteran, person with a work-related disability or family disability beneficiary should submit the ruling on disability,
- Refugees and displaced persons should submit their refugee or displaced person’s identity card, registration of residence and identity card.
For household members, submit the same supporting documents as for the applicant.
Decision on the application
Applications for free legal aid are dealt with as a matter of urgency.
The administrative authority issues a ruling on the application within eight days of receiving it or, if it has requested additional documents from the applicant, within eight days of the date on which they were delivered.
If there is a risk of irreparable harm to the applicant, or if the time limit within which the applicant may take a step in the proceedings would expire, the administrative authority must issue a ruling on the application within three days of receiving it.
If the administrative authority does not issue a ruling within eight or three days, respectively, of receiving the application or the additional documents, the application is deemed to have been rejected.
An administrative authority that requests additional documents from the applicant must set a time limit for submitting them of no less than eight days; if the requested documents have not been submitted by the time this time limit expires, the applicant is deemed to have withdrawn the application.
From the submission of the application for free legal aid until the final calculation of the remuneration for free legal aid, the beneficiary must report to the administrative authority, within 15 days, any change that could lead to the revocation of the ruling granting free legal aid.
You can view or download the application form for free legal aid here.