How often can you change lawyers?

Questioner

My friend has been in prison for 2 years. He asks for camera images and he wants to call witnesses. But nothing is done with it. It is said that he has had many lawyers. This cannot be more than three. Now I have the question: how often can he switch to another lawyer?

Lawyer

You can switch to another lawyer without any restrictions. The problem is in the financing. If your friend is assisted on a legal aid basis ('pro deo'), the Legal Aid Board will not continue to pay indefinitely. Moreover, it becomes less interesting for each subsequent lawyer to do it on the basis of legal aid, because you receive one legal aid per instance (court, court of appeal and cassation), which is in principle a fixed amount. The more lawyers have to share that compensation, the less is left. In short: if you pay the lawyer yourself, you can simply switch, if it is on a legal aid basis, it becomes more difficult with each switch.