- 53 %have already refrained from legal steps for fear of costs
- 74 %have heard of legal aid or advisory assistance
- 59 % vs. 84 %awareness among workers vs. civil servants
- 248.447approved advisory-assistance applications in 2024 — half of 2019
53 percent of people in Germany have already refrained from initiating or pursuing legal steps because they feared possible lawyers’ or court costs. For 30 percent this happened more than once, for another 23 percent once. That is shown by a representative survey by the polling institute Civey with 5,000 respondents per question, commissioned by NLTS Global Analytics in mid-September 2026.
Prozesskostenhilfe (legal aid) and Beratungshilfe (advisory assistance) exist precisely for that case: state support with the costs of legal advice or court proceedings for people on low incomes. 74 percent of respondents have heard of them; 23 percent have not.
Awareness depends on occupation and education. Among workers only 59 percent know the instruments, among people without a vocational qualification 66 percent, among those with a lower secondary school leaving certificate or none 65 percent, and among those still in training 54 percent. By occupational status, civil servants are best informed at 84 percent and managers at 78 percent. Between civil servants and workers the gap is 25 percentage points.
The pattern reverses for forgoing legal action, in the same groups: 66 percent of workers have already refrained from legal steps; among civil servants it is 38 percent. By employment status, the self-employed are hit most often (65 percent; half of all self-employed more than once), followed by the unemployed and those not in employment (60 percent).
“Anyone who does not enforce their rights because they fear the costs effectively loses them. And anyone who does not know that state help exists cannot apply for it. These two figures belong together: the gap is largest among workers and people without qualifications — where a lawyer’s fee is most likely to break the household budget,” says NLTS Global Analytics.
At the same time, advisory assistance is granted only half as often as in 2019. According to official statistics from the Federal Office of Justice, 248,447 applications for advisory assistance were approved in 2024, at a cost of €23.5 million. Five years earlier there were still 499,568 approvals and €48.0 million. The decline continues: compared with 2023 the figure fell by almost another five percent. In 2013, 752,550 applications were approved — three times as many as today. At the same time a clearly larger share of applications is rejected than before: 7.5 percent in 2013, 14.6 percent in 2024. Advisory assistance is granted out of court and does not depend on the number of court cases.
There is no official nationwide statistic on spending for legal aid (Prozesskostenhilfe). The last published federal overview comes from the 2012 draft bill reforming legal aid and advisory assistance and ends with 2010; at that time federal and Land spending was around €500 million a year. The government bill aimed to relieve Land budgets by about €64.8 million a year. The Bundestag struck central cost-cutting measures; in the Bundesrat’s assessment that eliminated the vast majority of the projected relief. Whether and what the law that entered into force in 2014 actually saved is unknown: it contains no reporting duty, and no evaluation has been published. Spending figures since then appear only scattered in individual Land budgets and in Germany’s reports to the European Commission for the Efficiency of Justice (CEPEJ) of the Council of Europe, which do not separate legal aid, advisory assistance and mandatory defence.
“To pass a reform with the stated aim of saving money and still keep no nationwide statistic on what the state spends on legal aid at all — for a benefit that decides access to justice — is remarkable,” says NLTS Global Analytics.
Question 1: Awareness of legal aid and advisory assistance
„Haben Sie schon einmal von Prozesskostenhilfe oder Beratungshilfe gehört, die Menschen mit geringem Einkommen bei Kosten für Rechtsberatung / Gerichtsverfahren unterstützen?“ (Have you ever heard of Prozesskostenhilfe or Beratungshilfe…?) — share answering “Yes”, 17–19 September 2026, n = 5,000.
| Gruppe | Ja | Gruppe | Ja |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gesamt | 74 % | Beamt:innen (berufl. Stellung) | 84 % |
| 18–29 Jahre | 59 % | Führungskräfte (berufl. Stellung) | 78 % |
| 30–39 Jahre | 69 % | Angestellte (berufl. Stellung) | 72 % |
| 40–49 Jahre | 71 % | Arbeiter:innen (berufl. Stellung) | 59 % |
| 50–64 Jahre | 82 % | Studium oder höher | 77 % |
| 65 Jahre und älter | 76 % | Berufsausbildung | 73 % |
| Abitur | 77 % | ohne Berufsabschluss | 66 % |
| Mittlere Reife | 71 % | noch in Ausbildung | 54 % |
| Hauptschule / kein Abschluss | 65 % | Geschieden | 85 % |
Werte exportbedingt in ganzen Prozentpunkten. Der statistische Fehler von 2,6 Prozentpunkten gilt für das Gesamtergebnis; für Teilgruppen ist er größer.
Question 2: Forgoing legal steps for cost reasons
„Haben Sie schon einmal darauf verzichtet, rechtliche Schritte einzuleiten oder weiterzuverfolgen, weil Sie die möglichen Anwalts- oder Gerichtskosten gescheut haben?“ (Have you ever refrained…?) — 17–19 September 2026, n = 5,000.
| Gruppe | Ja, mehrmals | Ja, einmal | Zusammen |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gesamt | 30 % | 23 % | 53 % |
| Arbeiter:innen (berufl. Stellung) | 28 % | 38 % | 66 % |
| Führungskräfte (berufl. Stellung) | 30 % | 30 % | 60 % |
| Angestellte (berufl. Stellung) | 31 % | 25 % | 56 % |
| Beamt:innen (berufl. Stellung) | 23 % | 15 % | 38 % |
| Selbstständige (Beschäftigungsstatus) | 50 % | 15 % | 65 % |
| Arbeitslose / Nichterwerbspersonen (Beschäftigungsstatus) | 42 % | 18 % | 60 % |
| Arbeitnehmer:innen (Beschäftigungsstatus) | 29 % | 29 % | 58 % |
| Rentner:innen (Beschäftigungsstatus) | 26 % | 18 % | 44 % |
| Männer | 34 % | 21 % | 55 % |
| Frauen | 27 % | 26 % | 53 % |
Restkategorien „Nein“ und „Weiß nicht“ nicht abgebildet. Summen aus gerundeten Einzelwerten.
Official figures: advisory assistance (Federal Office of Justice)
Approvals = entitlement certificate on direct application plus approval or entitlement certificate on lawyer-filed application (columns 2 and 3 of the advisory-assistance statistics). The statistics cover lawyer-provided advisory assistance; Bremen and Hamburg, where under § 12 Beratungshilfegesetz public legal advice takes its place, are not included. 2024 is the latest available reporting year (published 29 September 2025).
| Jahr | Anträge | Bewilligungen | zurückgewiesen | Kosten |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2013 | 814.555 | 752.550 | 7,5 % | 69.632.319 € |
| 2019 | 560.415 | 499.568 | 10,7 % | 48.013.323 € |
| 2022 | 311.475 | 261.851 | 15,8 % | 26.399.308 € |
| 2023 | 306.834 | 260.558 | 14,8 % | 24.910.711 € |
| 2024 | 292.482 | 248.447 | 14,6 % | 23.462.309 € |
Quelle: Bundesamt für Justiz, Beratungshilfestatistik 1981–2024, Stand 29. September 2025. „zurückgewiesen“ = Anteil der schriftlich zurückgewiesenen Anträge an allen Anträgen.
Methodology: On behalf of NLTS Global Analytics, the polling institute Civey surveyed 5,000 people in Germany aged 18 and over online from 17 to 19 September 2026 for each question. The statistical error of the overall result is 2.6 percentage points. Official figures are from the Federal Office of Justice advisory-assistance statistics 1981–2024 (as of 29 September 2025), Bundestag printed paper 17/11472, and Bundesrat printed papers 382/13 (decision) and 542/13.
For journalists: detailed breakdowns (age, education, employment status, Länder, population density, regional purchasing power, children in the household) are available on request: info@nlts.eu. Credit line when using the data: „Civey im Auftrag von NLTS Global Analytics“.