According to French legislation, since 1954, advocates have the right to receive such financial means of their clients which are results of judicial acts as well as decisions of the administrative bodies.

Each advocate deposits into one common cash desk /bank account/ the financial means, which are addressed to the clients.  The bank account is controlled by CARPA of the bar association which the advocate is a member of.

CARPA,  as a system (French model of bank account for advocacy payments) has been founded in 1957 and has been mandatory for all advocates in France since 1986.

CARPA is not considered to be a financial organization, but all advocates practicing advocacy in France shall deposit the financial means of their clients received as a result of judicial or legal acts as well as decisions of the administrative bodies to CARPA accounts.

It is considered to be an exceptional guarantee for the clients who feel themselves more secure by trusting their funds to advocates.

Money deposited to CARPA account cannot be controlled exclusively at the discretion of the advocate. The financial means are transferred to their real owner under the control of the relevant department of CARPA.

Besides security, which is acquired both by the client as well as their advocate or the law firm, CARPA is also considered to be a tool which guarantees the supervision, confidentiality as well as the safety of transactions.

French laws clearly state that financial means of the client which are a result of judicial acts as well as decisions of administrative bodies can be received by the advocates solely in such cases when they are the outcome of advocates’ professional practice, in other words, not all the financial means of the client can be transferred to the advocate only the ones obtained as an outcome of the advocate’s practice which can be a result of judicial, administrative and extra-judicial acts and/or decisions.

The advocates in their turn can receive the financial means of their clients through the CARPA bank account opened especially for that purpose by strictly following all regulating norms.

Each advocate has the right to receive the financial means addressed to his client only on his personal CARPA bank account which on its turn is divided into as many  sub-accounts as cases (civil, criminal and administrative) the advocate has.

Each flow between sub-accounts is forbidden except the cases which have the special permission of the CARPA's president with appropriate reasoning.

No sub-account shall have a negative balance.

Hence, clients’ financial means shall be immediately deposited into the advocates’ bank account and shall be directed to the addressees after presenting relevant identity documents and maintaining the term of the contract concluded between CARPA and relevant financial organization (bank).

Each advocate who receives financial means, which amount exceeds the limit insured by the insurance police shall inform CARPA’s president about it in order to provide additional guarantees before receiving funds.

Every advocate of any Bar association of France shall apply to CARPA system with a request to open a CARPA sub-account immediately after becoming a member of the relevant bar association. As a result, one common CARPA account is divided into as many sub-accounts as many advocates practice in the bar association at the moment.

The advantages of CARPA system are:

• Financing of organization of free legal aid,
• Funding the complete or partial expenses concerning professional mandatory insurance of advocates,
• Absolute guarantee for the clients and the third parties who entrust the advocates their financial means obtained as a result of decision of judicial acts and administrative bodies,
• CARPA as a guarantee of payment of the advocate’s royalty,
• Strong control over financial flows maintaining advocacy secret,
• Reduction of the membership fee based on the obtained financial means in a result of CARPA’s operation,
• Acquiring the necessary means for operation of CARPA system and staff,

• Social support to indigent advocates (professional pension),

• Reduction of fees for mandatory trainings of advocates.

Besides the above-mentioned advantages, CARPA is also an effective tool in fighting against money laundering. There are many cases when financial means with questionable origin have been disclosed with the help of CARPA. In France, thanks to CARPA, advocates manage to alert in case of suspicious transactions without violating the deontological principle of advocacy secret.