One of the important aspects of the Legal Aid Service is to support beneficiaries with regard to issue related to social assistance.

The Legal Aid Service offers free legal consultations in order to ensure protection of rights of beneficiaries. They are entitled to use person-to-person and telephone/online consultation services. Legal Aid Service provides free legal aid on cases of social assistance if:

• Insolvent person requests appointment of an advocate;
• Dispute falls into the category of complex and important cases;
• The grounds for the dispute is the Law of Georgia on Social Assistance and its by-laws;

The Government of Georgia provides different types of social assistance for the purpose of effective and targeted aid to persons who are in need of special care and are lawful permanent residents of Georgia, deprived families and homeless persons. The types of social assistance include: 

Living allowance: Families have the right to apply for a living allowance. A family with socioeconomic index below the one determined by the legislation is entitled to receive a living allowance and it serves the purpose of improvement of social-economic condition of deprived families. The amount of living allowance is determined in accordance with the socioeconomic index. A family that disagrees with the granted index is authorized to apply to the territorial unit of the Social Service Agency according to the location of residence and request evaluation after one year from the last evaluation.

Reintegration allowance: A family may apply for a reintegration allowance. A reintegration allowance is monetary social assistance granted to those biological families and custodians (guardians) of persons in need of special care, who take them into the family from specialized institutions and provide appropriate care to them.

Allowance for foster care: An allowance for foster care is monetary social assistance granted to a foster mother or a foster father to raise and take care of a foster child.

Allowance for family care of a person of full legal age: The allowance for family care of persons of full legal age is monetary social assistance granted to those persons who take a person of full legal age into their families from a specialised institution and provide appropriate care to them.

Non-monetary social assistance: Persons in need of special care may be a beneficiary of non-monetary social assistance. For prevention and reintegration purposes a child and/or his/her family may also be provided with a non-monetary social assistance, when there is a family condition that serves as a justifiable precondition to recognize the child as a child without parental care; or such assistance may be provided to children without parental care in order to ensure their living in a family environment.

Social package: A social package is a monthly monetary allowance and/or a set of allowances (monetary and non-monetary allowances). The basis for granting a social package is the status of a person with disabilities and death of the breadwinner.

In case of satisfaction of above mentioned criteria on cases of social assistance the free legal aid is provided in cases of violation of rules and conditions of  granting, termination, renewal and suspension of social assistance, and disputes caused due to violation of other procedures related to it.

Legal Acts

• Constitution of Georgia
• Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms
• European Social Charter, May 3, 1996
• Law of Georgia on Social Assistance
• Law of Georgia on Adoption and Foster Care
• Law of Georgia on Social Protection of Persons with Disabilities
• Law of Georgia on Legal Aid
• Ordinance #424 of the Government of Georgia on Approval of a Rule for Determination of Insolvency of a Person 
• Ordinance #145 of the Government of Georgia on Targeted Social Assistance adopted on July 28, 2006 
• Ordinance #126 of the Government of Georgia on Decrease of Poverty and Measures for Improvement of Social Assistance of Citizens adopted on April 24, 2010;
• Ordinance #01-20/ნ of the Minister of Labor, Health and Social Affairs on Approval of Rules and Conditions for Granting, Termination, Renewal and Suspension of the Reintegration Allowance and Determination of Relationship Related to Issuing the Allowance adopted on March 20, 2014;
• Ordinance #01-27/ნ of the Minister of Labor, Health and Social Affairs on Approval of Rules and Conditions for Granting, Termination, Renewal and Suspension of the Allowance for Family Care of a Person of Full Legal Age, issued on April 19, 2014;
• Ordinance #51/ნ of the Minister of Labor, Health and Social Affairs on  Approval of Procedures and Forms of Foster Care Issued on February 26, 2010;
• Ordinance #279  of the Government of Georgia on Determination of Social Package issued on July 23, 2012;
• Ordinance #121 of the Government of Georgia on Approval of the State Program on Social Rehabilitation and Child Care issued on March 9, 2017;
• Decision #20 of the Legal Aid Board on Approval of Regulation of the Legal Entity of Public Law –Legal Aid Service 
• Decision #27 of the Legal Aid Board on Approval of Criteria for Providing Legal Aid Service determined under article 5 and 3 of the Law of Georgia on Legal Aid 

Scope of Service

In the course of conducting defense on civil and/or administrative cases, the lawyer of Legal Aid Service, as the rule conducts following actions:

• Reviews the information and case materials.
• Meets with the client and provides legal advice.
• Analyzes the information related to the case, ensures the collection of evidence and submission with the court for the purpose of successful conduct of the case.
• Represents the client in court.
• Drafts legal documents related to the case – motions, claims, counterclaims, motions complaints, applications.
• Informs the client an in case of necessity his/her legal representative on the course of conduct of the case.

Terms of Use of the Service

The Legal Aid Service offers free legal assistance if:

• Insolvent person requests appointment of an advocate;
• Dispute falls into the category of complex and important cases;
• The grounds for the dispute is the Law of Georgia on Social Assistance and its by-laws;

A person is considered to be insolvent and entitled to use legal services on state’s expense if he/she is a member of a family registered in the unified database of socially vulnerable families, whose socioeconomic index is equal or below 70 000.

In addition, person is considered to be insolvent and has right to use the legal services on the state’s expense  in case he/she is a member of a family registered in the unified database of socially vulnerable families, whose socioeconomic index is equal or below 100 000 and belongs to one of the categories listed below: 

• Member of a multi-child family with more than 3 children under age of 18;
• War and the Military Veterans;
• Person with limited capacity status under age of 18;
• Adults with significant and severe expression of disabilities;
• A person with significant, severe or moderate expression of disabilities, in case it started from childhood;
• Orphan under the age of 18;
• People displaced as a result of the aggression by The Russian Federation against Georgia.

The legal services can be provided in special circumstances to those people who are not registered in the unified database of socially vulnerable families but due to difficult social-economical condition cannot afford to cover the expenses of legal assistance. This is regulated by the Decision #27 of the Legal Aid Service Board adopted on September 9, 2015. This condition applies to the persons who belong to the following categories:

• Persons who met the criteria of insolvency and their data is available at the archives of unified database of socially vulnerable families;
• Persons whose difficult social-economical condition is proved by the certificate issued by the local self-governing institutions;
• Persons with incurable and serious disease;
• Single mother who has juvenile children;
• Person acknowledged as a victim of political repressions;
• Pensioner;
• Lawyer employed by the Legal Aid Service, his/her family member and relative;
• Family who lost bread-winner;
• Beneficiaries of the Program on Rehabilitation and Resocialization of Former Prisoners of  LEPL “Crime Prevention Center”;
• Beneficiaries of international humanitarian union “Catharsis” (Charity House).