located in smaller cities. The economic criteria, which is the basis for benefiting from the legal aid
service, also varies between bar associations. Some bar associations use legal aid services, only for
persons without any income; meanwhile some bar associations take earners of minimum wage as part
of the acceptable criteria for benefiting from legal aid. Upon examination of the legal aid mechanism
from the disability perspective, it can be seen that legal aid offices have accessibility problems, that
online application is not possible in many bar associations, and if there are applicants with hearing
disabilities, there is no established form of implementation of finding or providing interpretation
services. Also, the statistical data of persons with disabilities who benefit from legal aid are not
recorded.
Problems also arise concerning lawyers who provide legal aid services to persons with disabilities.
Especially persons with hearing disabilities and lawyers frequently have communication problems
during the proceedings. For that matter, lawyers tend to refrain from providing legal aid services to
persons with disabilities. It is also observed that, while bar associations often provide training to lawyers
in the legal aid list concerning women's rights, children's rights and recently popularized refugee rights,
very few trainings on disability rights have been provided. Another problem is that due to the relatively
low attorney fees in the legal aid services, most of the lawyers in the list of legal aid services tend to be
those who are less experienced in the field. Additionally, as a general problem, legal fees and expenses
are very high in Turkey. Legal assistance provided by bar associations is only limited to the provision
of free appointed lawyers. There is no support for litigation fees and other official costs, and this creates
an important barrier. The exemption from the fees and expenses are decided upon the court after filing
a case under Article 337 of the Code of Civil Procedure (No: 6100). However, the decisions of the
courts on this issue cannot be appealed. Therefore, even if the person is granted free of charge to legal
services within the scope of legal aid, they either need to pay the fees and legal expenses or they give
up their cases.
There is a legal basis for persons with disabilities to benefit from legal aid services in criminal
proceedings. The Bar Association appoints a lawyer to provide legal support during the investigation
and prosecution proceedings under the Code of Criminal Procedure (CMK) (Law No: 5271). However,
there is a problem of communication between the lawyers and persons who have hearing impairments
or unable to express themselves. There are no provisions for providing interpreters or psychological
experts during attorney-client interviews.
Junior Lawyers, who are inexperienced, are generally included in the CMK system. This situation
causes the defense not to be sufficiently effective in certain cases. Lawyers have the right to
communicate with their clients in prison, but in terms of these interviews, a provision regulating the
subjective situation of persons with disabilities is not included in the relevant laws.
14