Preparing applications to the ECHR

The cost of preparing an application to the ECHR depends on the time the work will take. The range is very wide: from a few hundred euros if the work can be done in two or three hours, to 10,000 euros or more if it requires tens of hours. That time is needed to study the documents, identify the key facts, find and analyse all current ECHR case-law on the merits and admissibility of each potential complaint, formulate the complaints on that basis, substantiate each alleged violation, show compliance with the admissibility criteria for each complaint, and then present all of this in the application form briefly, clearly and consistently.

I can assess how much time your case will require, and therefore the cost of preparing the application, only after seeing the documents. Please provide all decisions you wish to complain about; any other documents recording the measures you wish to complain about; all complaints, appeals or other submissions to the national authorities, including courts, in which those complaints were raised in substance; and all decisions on those complaints, appeals or submissions. If you already have the full case file in electronic form, it is better to send it all at once. Do not worry about sending extra documents or about missing something: if I need additional documents after studying what you send, I will ask you for them.

I usually reply to a request for the cost of preparing an application within one week of receiving all the necessary documents and information. If the time-limit for applying to the Court expires in the next few days, write to me and ask whether I can consider your request urgently. I promise to reply to that email within 24 hours. If I confirm that I can, and you immediately provide the necessary documents and information, I promise to give you my response to your cost request within the next 48 hours.

If I conclude that an application to the Court has reasonable prospects, I will tell you the exact cost of preparing it, taking into account the complaints that it makes sense to raise, and will briefly say which complaints it does not make sense to bring. At the same time, I will send you the agreement for the preparation of the application. Payment may be made by bank transfer to my account in Switzerland or by other methods, depending on the country from which payment is made. The application will always be prepared in time to be lodged with the Court within the applicable time-limit. When the work is completed, I will email you the completed application form, the prepared annexes, and instructions on how to print, sign and send everything to the Court correctly. Representation before the Court and any other work on the case are not included in the cost of preparing the application. If I conclude that I can see no reasonable prospects for an application to the Court, I will tell you only that.

This service is clearly not for you if any of the following statements applies to you:

I already have a completed application form and only need it checked for errors.
I am not prepared to provide all the necessary documents for the case.
I expect detailed explanations for each of my complaints, even if there are no reasonable prospects for an application to the Court in relation to that complaint.
I expect the application to be prepared even if no reasonable prospects for an application to the Court can be identified.
Given the number of my complaints and the volume of documents I already have in the case, it is obvious to me that preparing the application will require much more time than I am prepared to pay for.
I can fill in the application form myself in accordance with all the Court’s requirements and set out all key facts, alleged violations and information about compliance with the admissibility criteria for each alleged violation, precisely in line with the case file and the current ECHR case-law applicable to my case.

I would like to clarify the terms

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