More than 1,000 people have asked for free legal aid since the start of 2026, the justice ministry says. The news comes exactly 21 years after the Legal Aid Act was published.

Over the same period, the National Legal Aid Bureau checked and paid 19,740 lawyers' bills. The bureau runs the whole legal aid system: it decides who qualifies for help and pays the lawyers on the National Register for Legal Aid.

The state pays for a lawyer for people with no income or low income, and for people on welfare. Children, people with disabilities, and victims of domestic or sexual violence also get a state-funded lawyer. So do victims of trafficking, foreigners seeking international protection, and other groups set out in the law. For unaccompanied children who ask for international protection in Bulgaria, legal aid is mandatory, and the bureau assigns them a lawyer.

Legal aid is not just about having a lawyer in court, the ministry says. It also covers advice, help with paperwork for court or administrative cases, representation outside court, representation during legal proceedings, and a lawyer during detention.

Bar associations across the country run 27 regional advice centres, where people earning below the poverty line get free legal advice.

There is also a national legal aid phone line — 0700 18 250 — open every working day from 9am to 5pm. It has been taking calls since 2013.