How to find a lawyer in Czechia - and avoid costly legal mistakes

Czech legal proceedings can be difficult for anyone to navigate, but language barriers and unfamiliar legal conventions create additional problems for foreigners. Finding a lawyer with relevant expertise who also speaks your language to a high standard is one of the most important steps you can take.

Foreigners should also be aware that Czech proceedings may work differently from those in their home countries. Assumptions about courtroom arguments, evidence and responsibility for legal costs can lead to potentially costly mistakes.

A key stumbling block is finding a lawyer with relevant expertise who also speaks your language to a high standard. For foreigners who are not comfortable speaking either Czech or English at a high level, the language barrier can impose severe limitations.

Your first stop should be the Czech Bar Association’s directory, which allows you to search for lawyers by language ability. However, the listed language skills and specializations are self-reported by lawyers and are not verified by the association.

One example illustrates the language problem faced by foreigners: At the time of writing, the directory contained more than 12,000 lawyers listing English-language capabilities, but that number dropped dramatically—to 1,299—when the search was limited to English-speaking lawyers covering family law.