Search engine launched to help find EU lawyers
An online search facility which enables cross-border searches for lawyers across the European Union has been launched today by the European Commission.
Initiated by the Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe (CCBE), the Find-A-Lawyer (FAL) search engine has been in development since 2010 and is now up and running on the European e-Justice portal, with support and funding from the European Commission.
At present the facility contains data from 17 member states, in full or part – so far the only UK lawyers represented are the Faculty of Advocates, though member details from the Law Society of Scotland and the Bar Council for England & Wales are expected to be ready soon, according to a CCBE spokesperson, but the other UK and Ireland Law Society databases are less ready.
Making the FAL search engine available through the e-Justice portal is expected to simplify the process of searching for a lawyer in a different EU member state in three different ways. First, the multilingual interface of the e-Justice portal enables citizens to use the search engine in their native EU language. Secondly, the search engine has created a single point of entry for the different national databases by including harmonised search criteria (city, postal code, practice area, language, professional title, specialisation and lawyer’s name) and common practice areas in a user-friendly user interface. Thirdly, the need to know the intricacies of the legal profession in a specific country disappears through the explanatory texts which guide the user of the search engine.
Other countries represented to date on the FAL search engine are Austria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Hungary, Netherlands, Poland, Slovenia and Spain. More countries will be included soon.
The search tool (English language version) can be found at https://e-justice.europa.eu/content_find_a_lawyer-334-en.do
On selecting a country to search in, users are given an explanation of which lawyers are covered, and the option of linking directly to the website of the relevant bar or law society (a translation button is then provided) or continuing to the Find a Lawyer search criteria.
In a video message to CCBE members to mark the first European Lawyers Day on 10 December, European Commissioner for Justice Věra Jourová underlined that: “I am ready to support your efforts in developing tools to modernise justice. Certain tools that you have developed are, or soon will be, part of the European e-Justice portal, for example the 'Find-A-Lawyer' tool.”