PART 2: How to Bring a Case to the Court solely on the basis of the content of the application form. Although the case lawyer in the Registry of the Court will usually give the applicant adequate opportunity to support his or her case with the necessary documentation, he or she cannot re-draft the application or the arguments set out in the application form. Indeed, it is not uncommon that application forms are submitted containing little or even no legal argumentation. Similarly, a legal representative who is retained at a later stage, after the application form has already been submitted to the Court, cannot re-draft the application or the arguments set out in the application form. As will be seen below in the section on admissibility, one of the grounds for inadmissibility is the “manifestly ill-founded” test applied to applicants’ complaints.109 An application may be deemed to be manifestly ill-founded, inter alia, if it is not supported by legal argumentation and/or sufficient evidence. A person without legal training may not be able to provide this. It must be emphasised here that once an application is declared inadmissible, there is virtually nothing an applicant can do to overturn that decision.110 In most countries that are parties to the Convention, a potential applicant without financial means will be able to obtain the services of a lawyer free of charge, to assist him or her with the application. Alternatively, in certain countries it may be possible to obtain legal aid from the national authorities. Furthermore, domestic legislation of some Contracting Parties allows lawyers to practise on a no-win, no-fee basis. Alternatively, potential applicants may enter into agreements with their lawyers whereby they undertake to pay a percentage of any award made by the Court by way of just satisfaction pursuant to Article 41 of the Convention. Applicants may also be able to obtain legal assistance from non-governmental organisations (NGOs) with experience in human rights litigation. In order to represent his or her client in Convention proceedings, the representative must be duly authorized through a signature by the applicant in the application form. A power of attorney prepared by a notary public is also acceptable provided it expressly indicates that the advocate is authorised to represent his or her client in proceedings before the European Court of Human Rights. If the applicant is represented, the Court will correspond with the representative and not with the applicant. Furthermore, it is the Court’s policy to correspond with only one representative, even if more than one lawyer represents the applicant. 109 See section 2.2.6 below. 110 In some circumstances, if the reason for inadmissibility is the applicant’s failure to exhaust domestic remedies, he or she may submit another application to the Court after having exhausted the relevant domestic remedy. This will only be possible, however, if the applicant does not, in the meantime, miss the deadline in domestic law to avail him or herself of that remedy. See also section 2.2.4 below. 55