Montpellier Legal Clinic

Director: Professor Lucas BENTO DE CARVALHO
Co-Director: Doctor Laurent CHABAUD

The Clinique juridique is a pedagogical innovation with a social vocation, promoting access to the law while complementing students' theoretical training. The aim of the Clinique juridique is to offer a free information service to people facing legal or social difficulties.

Founded in 2013 by Professor Daniel MAINGUY, the Montpellier Legal Clinic is one of the first modern French legal clinics to have been created. Its dual aim is to make the law more accessible to the most vulnerable, and to train law students through practical experience.

Recognized as an initiative of excellence on several occasions and winner of the Grand Prix de l'initiative étudiante by the M.U.S.E. (Montpellier Université d'Excellence) consortium of the University of Montpellier in 2019.

► TWO MISSIONS

Institutionalized by Dean Guylain Clamour within the Faculty in April 2019, the Montpellier Legal Clinic is located in the Faculty's Building 3.

Helping vulnerable people

Helping individuals with legal problems. Our aim is to improve access to the law for the most vulnerable groups (students, the elderly, the unemployed, the precarious, etc.), in addition to the help already provided by the Maison de la Justice et du Droit, lawyers and other legal professionals. 

Training students in real-life situations

The Clinic enables students to put into practice the theoretical knowledge acquired during their studies by confronting real-life situations.

At university level, the clinicians at the Clinique Juridique de Montpellier are student lawyers or law students from the second year upwards. Our teams are mixed, so that our older volunteers can share their skills and help develop those of the younger ones. 

► Are you a private individual or student with a legal problem?

The first step is to arrange an initial meeting.

In your e-mail, please specify:
> A summary of your request, what you expect from the clinic.
> Your availability over the next two weeks (please give more than one).
> Your telephone number .

You will be contacted within 72 hours (excluding school vacations and weekends).

During this first appointment, you will explain your situation to a team of student volunteers who will take charge of your file.
In order to provide you with a rapid response, you will need to bring all the relevant information and documents. The team will ask you the right questions at the right time to clarify your situation. After that, we'll need around 4 weeks to provide you with the answers you need and help you with the steps you need to take.

The team will explain its recommendations at a second appointment.

As part of our quality approach, no advice will be given at the first appointment. The same quality approach means that the information provided by volunteers must be verified by lecturers or lawyers.

All volunteers are bound by professional secrecy.

► How does it work?

Out of 200 clinicians, 30 are part of the organizing team, divided into 3 areas of expertise (Organization, Quality and Partnerships). Each of these areas is supervised by several PhDs or doctoral students in law, who in turn are supervised by teacher-researchers.

Organization Department

The Organization Department is responsible for the overall organization of the Montpellier Legal Clinic. It is responsible for relations between the Clinique Juridique de Montpellier and patients, as well as between the Clinique Juridique de Montpellier and our clinicians. He also manages the clinic's duty hours, registrations and the allocation of cases to our clinicians. It also works closely with the Quality Department to offer you the best possible service.

Partnership and Project Department

The Partnership and Project Department is responsible for federating the entire Montpellier Legal Clinic. It is responsible for all internal relations (with the University and Faculty) and external relations (with legal professionals and French and international legal clinics). It also sets up all partnerships with the Montpellier Legal Clinic. His aim is also to promote all our clinicians. It can also set up training courses with certain organizations in need of legal training.

Quality Department

> A dedicated quality center.

The Quality Department ensures that our legal information is of the highest possible quality, and that deadlines are kept as short as possible. It is made up of the most experienced students in the Faculty of Law and Political Science, who are directly supervised by a doctor or PhD student.

> Individualized follow-up of each file.

For each file received, a member of the Quality Department will be designated as referent. This referent is responsible for supervising our clinicians before, during and after appointments. If a member of the Quality Department is present during each of our appointments, he or she will only intervene as a last resort, leaving our clinicians to deal with the case as autonomously as possible. He acts as a team leader on each case, helping our clinicians.

> Three levels of control.

The member of the Quality Department designated as the referent for a file is our first quality control. A second check is carried out by a doctor or doctoral student. The final check is carried out by a teacher-researcher. We have streamlined our process as much as possible, without losing quality.