New Regulation on legal aid centres increases control over advocates – the UNBA Committee

Advocacy
12:00 Thu 02.06.16 437 Reviews
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Changes to the Regulation on secondary legal aid centres approved by the Ministry of Justice increase the control over advocates. This position was expressed on 1 June at the meeting of the UNBA Legal Aid Committee.

According to the Committee members, one of the tools of influence on advocates’ work is a monitoring evaluation, which is taken by officials of the centres. "This procedure breaches the law “On the Bar and Practice of Law”. A further influence of the Ministry of Justice on the bar is felt, which is unacceptable as it directly destroys the effectiveness of defence of citizens in the courts", - said Igor Kolesnikov, Head of the Committee.

The Committee saw discrepancy with the legislation in the provisions of the Regulation which provide obtaining by regional and local legal aid centres of documentary information from legal aid advocates (disclosure of advocates’ professional secrecy), assigning extraneous functions to centres of legal training, etc. The biggest attack on independence of legal aid advocates was made through empowering local secondary legal aid centres. However, as defined by law, such centres should only ensure the provision of legal aid, and not provide it directly.

The biggest scepticism was caused by the selection criteria for the posts of heads of local legal aid centres, who have been authorized by the new Regulation to ensure provision of legal aid. In particular, in the selection process a higher education in the fields of "Social Security" and "Management and administration" is considered as an asset. The requirement of working experience on managerial positions is only one year.

The advocate recalled about the Opinion of the Committee on the violation of advocates’ rights and professional guarantees, and the corruption component in the creation and operation of the legal aid system in Ukraine. The document was approved by the BCU in April. According to the Committee’s conclusions, the current legal aid system includes institutional, administrative, financial and legal drawbacks and it should be brought in line with the Constitution, the Law on the Bar and the Strategy for reforming the judiciary and related legal institutions for 2015-2020 approved by the Presidential Decree no. 276/2015 on 20 May 2015.

The UNBA detailed position regarding the evaluation of advocates’ activities by the State authorities is highlighted in the publication in "Law and Business".

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