Outlays on legal aid in Poland. Could we get more out of it?

Abstract

Summary
This article deals with estimates of the costs of the informal legal aid
system in Poland along with estimates of a possible institutional reform of
the system. Due to the lack of official data it was necessary to apply novel
procedures of measurement. Two approaches were used: a quasi-market and
a quasi-budget one. In line with the first approach the costs of the informal
legal aid system in 2012 were estimated at 540 million PLN. Under the other
approach, depending on data availability on particular legal aid providers,
three specific procedures of measurement of unit costs were employed, which
in combination with precise information on the total number of legal aid
providers by type, enabled estimation of the total costs of the informal system.
Implementation of the quasi-budget approach resulted in the estimation of
the annual total costs of the present system at the level of 514 million PLN
(ca 170 million USD). Such a result is thus close to the quasi-market estimate,
which seems to raise the credibility of the performed computations. Finally,
one is allowed to formulate a conclusion that annual cost of the functioning
of the informal system of legal aid in Poland was well above 500 million PLN,
as the calculus was carried out with minimalistic cost assumptions. The article
also attempts at estimating the costs of an institutionalised legal aid reform
in Poland. A main premise behind adequate computations is the observation
that the new system will not replace the existent one but will just supplement
it. This is so because a complete replacement of the present informal system
with a new formal one would prove economically ineffective as this act would
be tantamount to depriving the already well-functioning providers of the
right to give legal support to those in need. A key issue for estimating the
costs of the reform consists in establishing the amount of unmet demand for
legal aid as well as the outflow of legal aid recipients from the old to the new
system, including outflows from the commercial sector of legal advice. Using
deductive analysis, supported by data and conclusions drawn on the basis of
the national questionnaires into legal aid recipients and providers, the upper
estimate of the total costs of the reform was fixed at the level slightly below
180 million PLN (ca 60 million USD).