ECHR Lawyers — Representation Before the European Court of Human Rights

Most applications to the European Court of Human Rights never reach a judgment. They are rejected at the admissibility stage, usually on grounds that had nothing to do with the merits: a missed deadline, a domestic remedy that was never used, an application form filled in without the documents the Court requires. An ECHR lawyer is instructed to prevent exactly that, and then to argue the Convention case if the file survives. Your initial case assessment is free of charge.

At a glance

Instructing us	What it means in practice
First step	A free assessment of your prospects, with an honest answer where there are none
Deadline	Four months from the final domestic decision — the single most common reason applications fail
Representation	Optional when you lodge; required once the Court gives notice of the application to the respondent State
Urgent cases	Rule 39 interim measures, prepared and filed within hours where removal is imminent
Fees	Agreed in advance, with a written estimate before you commit
Languages	English, Spanish, French, Portuguese and Romanian
Where we act	For applicants across Council of Europe member states; offices in Cyprus and London

When instructing a lawyer changes the outcome

You may lodge an application yourself, and many applicants do. The rules, however, are technical and unforgiving, and the Court does not correct mistakes on your behalf. It makes sense to instruct a lawyer when:

• your national courts have rejected your case and you believe a Convention right was breached;
• you face an imminent deadline — the application must be lodged within four months of the final domestic decision;
• you need an urgent interim measure under Rule 39 to stop an extradition, expulsion or removal;
• you are unsure whether your complaint meets the admissibility criteria, particularly exhaustion of domestic remedies and victim status;
• your application has already been rejected and you want to know whether anything can still be done;
• you have a judgment in your favour and the State is not complying with it.

What an ECHR lawyer actually does

The work falls into five stages, and a case can be lost or saved at any of them.

• Assessment. Whether a Convention right is engaged at all, which Article fits the facts, whether the four-month period has started or expired, and whether the remedies you used were the ones that count.
• Drafting and lodging the application. The official form, the statement of facts, the Convention arguments and the annexes — prepared so that the complaint survives the admissibility filter and the arguments are preserved for later.
• Urgent protection. Where removal or another irreversible step is imminent, a Rule 39 request runs in parallel with the main application.
• Representation on the merits. Once the Court gives notice of the application to the Government, written observations are exchanged, friendly settlement or a unilateral declaration may be proposed, and just satisfaction is claimed under Article 41.
• After the judgment. Execution is supervised by the Committee of Ministers; individual measures and payment of any award are pursued through that process.

The situations people bring us

• A complaint that has to be filed. The domestic route is exhausted and the clock is running. See our guide to filing a complaint step by step.
• An application that was rejected. Most rejections are procedural. Sometimes a fresh application is possible; sometimes it is not, and we say so. Our page on correcting errors in a complaint sets out the realistic options.
• A fair trial case. Proceedings that were not independent, evidence that should never have been admitted, a hearing you were not allowed to attend — the Article 6 complaints that make up a large part of the Court’s docket.
• Detention. Arrest without a lawful basis, detention that outlasts its purpose, no speedy review by a court — Article 5.
• Removal to a country of risk. Extradition or expulsion where ill-treatment is a real possibility — Article 3, often together with a Rule 39 request. Where an INTERPOL Red Notice is behind the proceedings, that file runs alongside.
• Private life, data and reputation. Surveillance, police records, family and home — Article 8.
• Property. Expropriation, restitution and enforcement failures under Article 1 of Protocol No. 1.
• A State that ignores a judgment. Non-execution is its own problem, and it has its own procedure.

How we work

• Strasbourg is what we do. We work with the Convention system rather than general litigation, and our arguments are built on the Court’s own case law — the judgments we analyse are collected in our case-law database.
• An honest first answer. If the four-month period has expired, or no Convention right is engaged, you will hear that at the assessment stage rather than after paying for an application that cannot succeed.
• Transparent fees. A written estimate before you commit, and a clear statement of what is extra — translations, certified copies, courier.
• Remote by default. Cases are run by correspondence with the Court; we act for clients who are abroad, detained, or unable to travel.
• Named lawyers. You work with the people on our team page, not an anonymous queue.

Where we act

The Court hears cases against Council of Europe member states. We act for applicants across those states, and we keep country pages for the jurisdictions we are asked about most often: the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Poland, Romania, Greece, the Netherlands, Belgium, Hungary, Turkey and Ukraine.

What we need to assess your case

• the final decision of the highest domestic court that could have remedied your complaint, with its date;
• the earlier judgments and decisions in the same proceedings;
• a short chronology of what happened, in your own words;
• any deadline you are facing — a removal date, a hearing, an expiry you are worried about;
• documents in the original language; translations can follow.

Our guides to the application form and the four-month time limit explain what the Court itself requires.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need a lawyer to apply to the European Court of Human Rights?

Not to lodge the application. Representation becomes necessary once the Court gives notice of the case to the respondent Government, and the Court may also require it at an earlier stage. Because most applications fail on admissibility rather than on the merits, the practical value of a lawyer is at the start, not at the end.

How much does an ECHR lawyer cost?

The initial assessment is free. Fees for preparing and running an application are agreed in advance with a written estimate, and the additional costs — translations, certified copies, courier — are set out separately. There is no court fee for applying to Strasbourg.

My application was already rejected. Is anything still possible?

It depends on why it was rejected. A decision declaring an application inadmissible is final and cannot be appealed. Where the rejection was for a formal defect and the four-month period has not expired, a properly prepared fresh application may still be possible. That is the first thing we check.

Can you request urgent Rule 39 interim measures?

Yes. Where you face imminent and irreversible harm — typically extradition, expulsion or removal — we prepare and file a Rule 39 request asking the Court to indicate to the State that the step should not be taken while your case is examined. These requests are decided on the papers, so the file has to be complete when it arrives.

Do you work with clients outside Europe?

Yes. What matters is that your complaint is directed against a Council of Europe member state, not where you live. Proceedings before the Court are conducted in writing, and we act for clients who are abroad or in detention.

How long will the case take?

Longer than most people expect: the Court’s own processing of a case is measured in years rather than months, and an interim measure is the only part of the procedure that moves in days. Our page on how long a complaint takes explains the stages.