Facts
Velimir B. has long been claiming in vain for disability insurance benefits. In the context of a new investigation procedure, he requested the compensation fund of the canton of Berne to grant him the full right to free legal assistance for the ongoing administrative procedure. The compensation fund rejected this request, considering that the administrative procedure was entirely governed by the inquisitorial principle and that the appeal against the decision of the compensation fund to the cantonal insurance court and possibly the Federal Insurance Court offered the possibility of obtaining the assistance of a court-appointed lawyer. The cantonal insurance court upheld the appeal, annulled the contested decision and ordered the compensation fund to grant Velimir B. free legal assistance for the administrative procedure. The Federal Insurance Court upheld the appeal of the Federal Social Insurance Office and annulled the cantonal decision.Considerations
The Federal Tribunal considers that, within narrowly defined time limits and under strict objective conditions, Art. 4 Cst. confers a direct right to the appointment of a court-appointed lawyer for the - non-contentious - investigation procedure in disability insurance matters. However, this right does not extend to the entire administrative procedure, but only to the phase of the preliminary hearing procedure prior to the decision, when the following conditions are met: the requesting party must be in need, his request must not appear doomed to failure from the outset,…