Representing applicants before the ECHR

This service is offered only for applications that have already been communicated and in which the Court has informed the applicant that written observations must be submitted.

The cost of representation before the Court depends on the time needed to prepare answers to the Court’s questions, responses to the respondent State’s arguments, and, where necessary, clarifications of the facts and claims for just satisfaction. 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.

I can assess how much time your case will require, and therefore how much representation will cost, only after seeing the documents. Please provide the application with all its annexes, as well as everything else that was sent to the Court in relation to it and everything received from the Court. If I need additional documents, I will ask you for them.

I usually reply to a request for the cost of representation before the Court within one week of receiving all the necessary documents and information. If the time-limit set by the Court for submitting observations or other material 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.

To save time, I will send you the agreement and a completed authority form for representation before the Court when I tell you the cost of the service. The authority form will need to be printed, signed and sent by ordinary post to my address in France. 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, after the documents for the Court have been prepared. It is better, however, to pay before they are sent to the Court, so that proof of payment can be attached to the claims for just satisfaction. This makes it much easier to substantiate a claim for reimbursement of costs already incurred for representing the applicant before the Court.

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

My application has not yet been communicated by the Court, or it has been communicated without a request for written observations.
I am not prepared to provide all the necessary documents.
I am not prepared to deal with the authority form and send it by ordinary post.
I am not prepared to answer follow-up questions during the work or provide additional documents if they are needed.

I would like to clarify the terms

Start again

Report an error