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Procedure descriptions

Apply for permission to provide extrajudicial legal services

If you want to provide extrajudicial legal services against payment, you must be registered in the Legal Services Register.

Registration is possible for:

  • Debt collection services
    The debt collection sector is engaged in the collection of third party or claims assigned for collection purposes and thus contributes to improving the liquidity of its clients.
  • Pension advice in the field of
    • statutory pension and accident insurance,
    • social compensation law,
    • other social insurance and severely disabled persons law with reference to a statutory pension, and
    • the law of occupational and professional pension schemes.
  • Legal services in a foreign law

Legal services which are provided as an ancillarylegal services which are ancillary to another activity (e.g. collection of customer claims assigned to a workshop on account of performance) Only lawyers may represent clients in courtect in court. There are no legal requirements for free legal services within the circle of family and friends

Outside the circle of family, neighbours or friends, you may receive free legal advice

  • under the guidance of a legally qualified person, or
  • if you are legally qualified yourself.

This also applies in principle to charitable organisations and institutions, insofar as they provide legal services.

Responsible department

The President of the Regional Court of Freiburg for the District Courts of Freiburg, Constance, Offenburg and Waldshut-Tiengeng and Waldshut-Tiengen.

The President of the Regional Court of Karlsruhe for the business district of the Regional Courts of Baden-Baden, Heidelberg, Karlsruhe, Mannheim and Mosbach.

The President of the Regional Court of Stuttgart for the business district of the Higher Regional Court of Stuttgart.

Note: There are different jurisdictions in the other federal states.

Details

Prerequisite

You can register if you meet the following requirements:

  • They are personally suitable and reliable for the activity.

    Personal suitability is lacking, for example, in the case of a fundamental conflict of interest. Not sufficient for a conflict of interest is the fact that you exercise another profession. It must be an activity that is generally incompatible with the provision of legal services. This may be the case if you operate a debt collection agency and a financing brokerage at the same time.
    The criteria for reliability are yourparticularly any criminal offences, and your financial circumstances. As a rule, you cannot register due to a lack of reliability if
    • You have been convicted of a felony or a misdemeanour affecting the exercise of your profession in the last three yearsyou have been convicted of a felony or a misdemeanour relating to the exercise of your profession,
    • Your financial situation is in disorder,
    • You have been disbarred from practising as a lawyer within the last three years.

You are particularly theoretically and practically competent in the areas of law relevant to the activity applied for.

  • For debt collection services aspecial theoretical expertise is required in particular in
    • Civil law,
    • commercial, securities and company law,
    • civil procedure law, including compulsory enforcement and insolvency law
    • as well as costs law
  • For pension counsellingt requires special theoretical expertise in the following areas
    • Law of statutory pension and accident insurance as well as all other fields of law mentioned in section 10, paragraph 1, sentence 1, no. 2 RDG,
    • Structure, organisation andd structural principles of social security
    • Common legal principles applicable to all areas of social security, including administrative proceedings under social law and proceedings before the social courts
  • For legal services in a foreign law, you must be particularly theoretically knowledgeable in the foreign law or in sub-areas of the foreign law for which you are applying for registration.

You are practically competent ifn you have been practising in the area in which legal services are to be provided for at least at least two years

  • you have worked under supervision for at least two years or
  • have completed vocational training.

In principle, these must be activities that require independent processing of dunning and enforcement ordersthe practical expertise can be acquired, for example, in a legal practice in which you have worked for at least one year under supervision or have completed vocational training. The practical expertise may have been acquired, for example, in aacquired in the course of a debt collection service as

  • Clerical assistant to a lawyer or solicitor,
  • Clerk in a debt collection agency,
  • a self-employed member of staff in the legal oryou must be an employee of the legal or dunning department of a larger company or a bank or savings bank.

You can provide evidence of this expertise.

You have taken out professional liability insurance with a minimum insurance sum of 250,000 euros for each insured event in accordance with the provisions of the Legal Services Ordinance.

Procedure

You can submit the application for registration in writing to the competent registration authority.

  • Retrieve the necessary application forms online in the registration portal.
  • Fill out the forms completely. Pay particular attention to
    • on the indication of the area or sub-area for which the registration is to be made,
    • in the case of registration for legal services in a foreign law: to the indication of the foreign law to which the registration is to relate.
  • You submit the application forms together with the other documents and evidence to the registration authority.
  • The competent authority examines the application and registers you if the legal requirements are met. This registration is published in the Legal Services Register.
  • You can use the search function of the Legal Services Register to check whether you have been registered.

Deadlines

Permits to provide legal services to third parties under the former Legal Advice Act (Alterlaubnisse) expired on 1 January 2009, unless you submitted an "Application for Registration under the Legal Services Act for Alterlaubnis Holders" by 31 December 2008 at the latest.

Attention: Should you have submitted the application only on or after 1 January 2009, you are no longer authorised to provide legal services and to use the designation "legal adviser" until the date of registration.

Required documents

You must submit together with the application:

  • completed application form
  • a summary of your professional training and previous professional experience
  • for proof of personal reliability:
  • Proof of orderly financial circumstances:
    • if resident in Germany usually:
    • if you are resident abroad: documents from your home country proving your orderly financial circumstances
  • Documents proving your theoretical and practical expertise
  • Proof of professional liability insurance

You must provide evidence of your theoretical expertise in the form of certificates, usually of a successfully completed expertise course. The providers of the courses, the courses and the certificates must meet certain requirements. As a rule, you can prove your practical expertise by means of certificates of employment and other certificates of previous practical activity.

Costs

  • Registration (including registration of a qualified person in the case of legal entities or companies without legal personality): EUR 150.00
  • Revocation or withdrawal of registration: EUR 75.00

Processing time

The competent body shall decide on the application within three months.

Miscellaneous

Further information is available on the website of the Legal Services Register.

Anyone established in the European Economic Area (EEA) for the purpose of practising a profession connected with the provision of legal services may, under certain conditions, temporarily and occasionally practise this profession in Germany with the same powers as persons registered under the RDG (temporary legal services).

Note: You must immediately notify the competent body in writing of any changes affecting the registration or the content of the legal services register.

Release note

25.07.2022 Justizministerium Baden-Württemberg

Contact

Bürger- und Standesamt (Bürgeramt)
Grabenstraße 15
89522 Heidenheim an der Brenz
Fax (0 73 21) 3 23-33 32