"The Bar Association has never closed its doors to anyone." This is how the dean of the Lanzarote Bar Association, Carlos Viñas, responded to the statements of the president of Ahinor, Francisco Santana, in which he assured that those affected by an eviction “are not given the right to judicial protection so that they can defend themselves”.
“That statement shows an absolute ignorance of how free legal assistance works,” says Viñas, who explains chronologically what the procedure is to follow when a citizen needs a lawyer.
“The first thing you have to do is, if you lack economic resources, is to go quickly to your bar association”, assures Viñas, who even points out that it is specified in the notification of the lawsuit that “they give you three days to request free legal assistance”.
However, the dean of the Bar Association explains that then it is necessary to “apply the law”, depending on whether the applicant “is a beneficiary or not” of free assistance. “That service is for people with scarce or no economic resources. Not everyone has the right to free justice, because we would burden a service to the detriment of those who are really benefited or entitled to it,” he points out.
Carlos Viñas emphasizes that there are “deadlines” established by law, and in addition to the three days mentioned to request assistance, there are also deadlines to “oppose them”, once both the lawyer and the solicitor are appointed.
“There are people who have gone beyond the three days, and even if they have been met, the association does everything possible and more to appoint the person as a lawyer and solicitor,” says Carlos Viñas, who also responds to another of Ahinor's accusations, who said that the lawyers “closed” eviction cases.
“The procedures end with a sentence, which we may or may not like, but they are not open indefinitely. But it is not closed without further ado, within the deadlines set by law, lawyers exhaust the possibility of defending the citizen until the last minute, and that is what is done”, assures the dean.
Finally, Ahinor also assured that they provided lawyers to those affected, although they could not take care of the payment of the solicitors. In this regard, Carlos Viñas emphasizes that this also responds “to an ignorance of the law”: “If you are a beneficiary of free justice, you do not have to pay it”, he concludes.