Legal aid in Portugal: how to apply and get a court-appointed lawyer

What Portuguese legal protection is

The access-to-law system exists so that nobody fails to know, exercise or defend their rights for lack of money (Law 34/2004)¹. The legal protection granted by Social Security has two strands:

• the legal consultation (consulta jurídica): a meeting with a lawyer to clarify a concrete case, free in the first income tier and subject to a €30 fee in the second³;
• apoio judiciário (legal aid proper): support for the costs of a case, in the modalities of waiver of court fees and other charges, appointment and payment of a lawyer (the advogado oficioso), phased payment of any of those expenses and assignment of an enforcement agent.

Legal aid applies in courts, justices of the peace and other dispute-resolution structures, and the request can be filed before or during the case. It is not retroactive: it covers acts from the grant onwards.

Who qualifies: the means test

Economic insufficiency is measured by the household's relevant income for legal protection, computed with the formula annexed to Law 34/2004 and compared with the IAS, worth €537.13 in 2026¹:

The relevant income is not the real income: from the whole household's annual net receipts (after income tax and contributions) the formula deducts a basic-needs allowance, which grows with the household size, and a housing allowance, both with coefficients set per income bracket in the annex tables¹. In practice, a couple netting €12,000 a year is left with a relevant income of €388.23 a month and gets the full waiver, and even a single person netting €24,000 a year still fits the phased tier. When the household owns assets beyond the bank account, for example a second home, the law also adds an “implicit financial rent” on those assets to the income; the family home only counts for the part of its value above €100,000.

Two hard rules sit outside the formula: household bank deposits and listed securities above 24 times the IAS (€12,891.12 in 2026) exclude legal protection whatever the income¹; and whoever disposed of assets to look poor does not qualify. In the opposite direction, victims of domestic violence and of crimes against sexual freedom and self-determination are presumed economically insufficient (article 8.º-C), with urgent processing. In a dispute inside the household, for example a divorce, you can ask for only your own income to count.

To see your tier with the 2026 values, use the legal aid simulator.

The court-appointed lawyer

The advogado oficioso is appointed by the Bar Association (Ordem dos Advogados) from the professionals registered in the access-to-law system; neither Social Security nor the court picks the lawyer, and replacement requests also go to the Bar Association². Under the full waiver, the fees are paid by the Ministry of Justice and the beneficiary pays nothing. In the phased tier, the beneficiary pays the lawyer's compensation in monthly instalments to the Ministry of Justice. In criminal and administrative-offence cases, the defender appointed to the accused follows the same system.

How to apply to Social Security

The request is free and can be made in two ways²:

1. Online, through Segurança Social Direta, under Social action > Social supports > Legal Protection. The household composition comes pre-filled and Social Security shows the income and assets it already has on record;
2. At a desk, in any Social Security service point, with form PJ 1 (individuals) or PJ 2 (legal persons).

Attach identification and income documents for everyone living in the household as one economic unit: the latest tax return and assessment note, the last 6 months of payslips (employees) or VAT returns and invoices (self-employed), the property booklet for real estate and the documents of vehicles and company holdings. Whoever is unemployed without benefit attaches a job-centre statement or a parish council certificate.

The decision belongs to the district centre director and is due within 30 consecutive days; without a decision in time, the request is tacitly granted. If documents are missing, Social Security sets a 10 working day deadline, after which the request is refused without further notice. Before refusing in full or in part it must hear the applicant, who can respond within 10 working days; the final decision can be challenged in court, with the challenge filed at the Social Security service itself. And in borderline cases the director can grant the aid by specially reasoned order when strictly applying the criteria would manifestly deny access to justice (article 8.º-A, n.º 8)¹.

Phased payment in instalments

In the middle tier, the monthly instalment is 1/72 of the household's annual relevant income, or 1/36 when the monthly relevant income exceeds 1.5 times the IAS (€805.70 in 2026)¹. Three safety valves protect the payer:

• instalments falling due more than 4 years after the final decision becomes definitive stop being payable;
• whoever has already paid more than 4 times the initial court fee of the case can stop paying the remaining instalments²;
• instalments below €51 (0.5 units of account) are collected quarterly, half-yearly or yearly, to avoid multiplying small payments.

Instalments are paid with a single collection document (DUC), issued on the courts portal or requested at the court handling the case. Failing to pay an instalment and its fine within the deadline ends the legal protection.

The law that never (quite) changed

In 2018, Decree-Law 120/2018 rewrote the means test to align it with the common means-test rules of social benefits. But the decree itself made all effects of that rewrite depend on the entry into force of a regulatory decree with the new thresholds (article 21.º, n.º 2)⁴. That regulatory decree was never published. The regime designed by Law 47/2007 therefore still applies today: the annex formula, the 3/4 and 2.5 IAS thresholds and the 24 IAS deposits cap. Citing the 2018 rules as current is a common mistake online; Social Security's practical guide still lists the old regulation as the applicable law².

What the case you want covered actually costs

Legal aid exists because cases cost money: the court fee of an ordinary action runs from €102 to €1,632 per party, plus charges and the winner's recoverable costs. Before deciding, see how Portuguese court costs work and price your own case with the court fees calculator. If you receive minimum social benefits, such as the social insertion income, your relevant income will normally sit below the full-waiver line. And to work out the net household income the formula uses, the net salary calculator takes you from gross to net.