Lawyers are generally subject to some kind of official recommendation that they voluntarily provide a certain number of hours of free pro bono services to the poor each year.

In some countries, there are legal aid lawyers who specialize in providing legal services to the poor, disadvantaged, and indigent. France and Spain even have formal fee structures by which lawyers are compensated by the government for legal aid cases on a per-case basis.

In other countries, legal aid specialists are practically nonexistent.

This may be because nonlawyers are allowed to provide such services, as in Norway, or because mandatory fee structures have enabled widespread implementation of affordable legal expense insurance, as in Germany.

In Italy trade unions and political parties provide what can be characterized as legal aid services.