The advocates of Chernihiv region supported the alternative draft laws «On the Bar and Advocacy»

On September 28, 2018 Chernihiv Region Bar Council held a meeting focused on the draft laws «On the Bar and Advocacy» №№ 9055-1 and 9055-2.

A detailed analysis of these draft laws allowed to conclude them in line with the expectations of the bar community and implementation of the European standards.

«We ask you to accommodate the position of the bar of Ukraine on the alternative draft laws when considering the draft law № 9055 «On the Bar and Advocacy» and contribute to the reform of the legislation in accordance with the European standards, real needs of the bar community and in the interests of strengthening the constitutional guarantees of citizens’ rights», — stated in the Resolution of Chernihiv Region Bar Council.

The document was submitted to the Chairman of Verkhovna Rada, the Head and members of the Committee on Legal Policy and Justice of Verkhovna Rada.

In particular, the submitted alternative draft laws could solve the following problems:

• simplified procedure for drafting an advocate’s request;
• possibility of the involvement of the representatives of UNBA in drafting and processing of draft laws, other legislation on advocacy;
• ensuring the effective presence of a representative of a Region Bar Council during a search or inspection of a housing, other property of an advocate, the premises he works and exercise advocacy at, temporary access to articles and documents belonging to an advocate;
• inadmissibility of the abuse of right to initiate a disciplinary responsibility of an advocate;
• granting the advocates with the right to identified access to State Registers, including the Unified Register of Pre-trial Investigations, the United State Register of Execution proceedings, the Unified Judicial Information and Telecommunication System in accordance with the order established by the holder of a Register or System and in agreement with the Bar Council of Ukraine, except for registers containing information which is a state secret in the absence of the corresponding access to State secrets;
• ensuring a right of an advocate to have unrestricted access to the court premises during its working hours and at the time of the court session involving a client of the advocate, as well as to the premises of the courts, the Prosecutor's Office, the police, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, other law enforcement agencies, Pre-trial Detention and Execution of Sentences Institutions, public authorities at any time, if there is the client in those premises, etc.

The Resolution of Chernihiv Region Bar Council on the draft laws №№ 9055-1 and 9055-2 «On the Bar and Advocacy» compliance with European standards and real needs of bar community also describes such benefits as the lack of discriminatory provisions on the access to profession for the notaries, assistant judges, legal counsels, teaching scientific staff, research institutions staff, etc.

With that regard the alternative draft laws are different from the draft law № 9055 that provides for unjustified access to profession preferences for the former judges and prosecutors.

In addition, the alternative draft laws eliminate the corruption risks while saving the existing exam procedure that provides for the examination of both theoretical knowledge and practical skills of drafting procedural documents and solving the cases.

The advocates of Chernihiv region also welcome the attempts of the authors of the alternative draft laws to maintain existing system of regional bar self-government as to enable the existence of two legal entities, namely the Region Bar Council and Qualification and Disciplinary Commission. The system allows to delineate the functions between the two bodies and to avoid concentrating all the powers in one hand, which is in line with the recommendations of the Venice Commission experts.

Also, the lack of changes to the CPC of Ukraine, which are provided for in the Transitional Provisions of the draft law № 9055 and lead to a narrowing of the rights of the advocates in the process, is also positive. This is primarily Art. 22-1 concerning the inadmissibility of abuse of rights, as well as simplification of the procedure for notification of suspicion of persons with the status of a special subject; changes that grant the prosecution side the right to involve a public defender at its own discretion to conduct all the procedural actions needed for the prosecution in violation of the right of a person to freely choose a defender.

To recap, on September 17, 2018 Chernihiv Region Bar Council addressed the Committee on Legal Policy and Justice of Verkhovna Rada with Resolution of the meeting of the advocates of Chernihiv region dated September 14, 2018, which was held with the purpose of discussing the draft Law of Ukraine № 9055 "On the Bar and Advocacy".

According to the results of the meeting, it was decided to appeal to the Committee on the inadmissibility of the adoption of the draft law in the proposed edition.