10.  The applicant was born in 1950 and lives in Wrocław. 11.  After the applicant's husband had died in September 2002, she instituted proceedings in which she claimed her widow pension. 12.  By a decision of 3 October 2002, the social insurance authority dismissed her request. 13.  On 4 March 2003 the Wroclaw Regional Court dismissed her appeal against this decision. On 2 September 2004 the Wroclaw Court of Appeal dismissed her further appeal. 14.  The appellate court observed that the findings of fact made by the social insurance authority were correct. The applicant and her husband had de facto separated in 1994. He had been living since then with another woman. The applicant had not been receiving any maintenance payments from him. When he had fallen ill, she had not been taking care of him and she had been informed of his poor health only in March 2002. The court considered that the lower court had not erred when it assessed the testimony of one witness, who had submitted that the couple had been living together, as not being credible. The appellate court concluded that the legal requirements for granting a widow pension were not complied with. 15.  The applicant requested that legal aid for the purposes of lodging a cassation appeal with the Supreme Court be granted to her and her request was allowed. The court requested the local Bar Association to assign a lawyer to the case and advocate Z.W. was so assigned on 17 September 2004. 16.  The copy of the judgment of the appellate court was served on Z.W. on 9 November 2004. 17.  By a written opinion of one page and a half dated 3 December 2004 Z.W. advised the applicant that, in his view, a cassation appeal against the judgment of the appellate court did not offer reasonable prospect of success. He referred to the written grounds of the judgment of the appellate court by which that court had explained why the applicant had not complied with the requirements of the applicable law, and considered that in the light of the evidence examined by the courts, there were no grounds on which to argue that the second-instance judgment was in breach of the law. Consequently, he did not draw up the cassation appeal. 18.  The opinion contained the following paragraph:
“I would like to stress that the judgment of the Wroclaw Court of Appeal of 2 September was served on me on 9 October (sic) 2004 and that the thirty-day time-limit for the lodging of a cassation appeal expires on 9 December 2004.” 19.  On 6 December 2004 the applicant had a meeting with the lawyer at his office. He gave her his opinion and informed her that he saw no grounds on which to prepare a cassation appeal in her case. On the same occasion the applicant was served with the copy of the appellate court's judgment with its written grounds.