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When you expatriate in a foreign country to be able to defend your right is really important. The existence itself of the tribunal means you should not always simply pay fines. How do you achieve this objective in a country in which you don't speak the language?

The main problem I'm experiencing living in Austria is the strong difficulty I meet when I try to do a Google for something I need.

How should I search for finding car-fines specialized lawyer company support in a German speaking country?

Do you also know if consumer group are also offering cheap / free support? And what about legal insurance?

Flimzy
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Revious
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1 Answers1

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Based on your comments, it seems you are asking how to find a lawyer in Austria. There is a bar in each province (Bundesland) and they work together through something called the Rechtsanwaltskammertag. Its website provides a way to search for lawyers by area of expertise. Unfortunately the web form (and in particular the list of legal areas/specialities) is only available in German.

However, it's possible to look for lawyers who speak another language than German, which is particularly useful for expats. You need to select your language in the Fremdsprache drop-down list in the widget. For example, here is a list of Italian-speaking lawyers who reported being specialized in transport law and accident damages.

Beside the convenience of being close to your lawyer, it might be particularly important to hire a local lawyer as Austria is a federal state and traffic fines are typically defined at the provincial level.

Note that as far as I know, pure contingent fees are forbidden in Austria (and in many other European countries), so irrespective of the merits of your case there is probably no free way out as you might need to pay both the fine itself and lawyer fees upfront even if it gets tossed out later. One practical way to avoid even greater problems could therefore be to pay up before the fine is raised and avoid parking where you shouldn't going forward. You could also become a member of the local automobile club as they offer some legal advice to members.

Gala
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  • Do you know if consumer group are also offering cheap / free support? And what about legal insurance? – Revious Apr 02 '14 at 10:25
  • @Revious No, I don't know anything about that. You might want to “unaccept” my answer for the moment so that the question still looks open, maybe someone else will chime in. – Gala Apr 02 '14 at 10:33
  • If this is simply a question about finding an attorney, it seems off-topic to me. If it's about finding an English-speaking attorney, or one who specializes in immigrant defense, that might be a different story. – Flimzy Apr 02 '14 at 19:02
  • @Flimzy We had this discussion already (comments have been deleted). I chose to answer it for the language aspect, which is already mentioned, both in the question and answer. – Gala Apr 03 '14 at 07:21
  • @GaëlLaurans: A link to the meta discussion would be helpful. – Flimzy Apr 03 '14 at 16:32
  • @Flimzy Which meta discussion? – Gala Apr 04 '14 at 05:08