My rights violated: where to find free legal aid in Ukraine

Viktoriia Hubareva

October 8 is Lawyer's Day in Ukraine. On this occasion, Rubryka has prepared useful advice on where to look for free legal help and how to understand the laws and courts individually.

Unfortunately, it's impossible to do without professional legal help in the modern world because of many nuances. If not taken into account, you can get confused in laws, regulations, and codes. However, despite this, every citizen must know a mandatory minimum. They consider the minimum to be norms in the fundamental law of any country, Constitution. It is the document that is primary, and no norm in the legislation can contradict the norm of the constitution. You can understand how the state apparatus and the judicial system work, what basic rights, freedoms, and obligations a citizen has, by looking at the corresponding chapter. As for other deeper aspects of legislation, there are many bylaws, decrees, orders, instructions, besides the key codes. It is impossible to read them all and know their content. You will not find a lawyer who understands tax law as well as family law, since different areas need unique knowledge. But despite this, there's an unspoken rule among lawyers: "You need to know not the norm, but where to find it." It's what they teach lawyers to a large extent in universities: legislation structure, basic principles, and logic.

So, it's so difficult for an average person to follow, even when drawing up an ordinary lawsuit. You have to look for specialized help, but where? Not to get confused in the tons of information on the Internet, and not to refer to norms that have already lost their legal force, we have selected free resources where you can get advice, find samples of the documents, and learn how to protect your rights.