Advocates should be fined for identifying themselves with clients – draft

One of the guarantees of the practice of law enshrined in the relevant law is the prohibition of identification of a lawyer with a client. Today, there are numerous cases of violation of this guarantee, which threatens the functioning of the Bar and the development of Ukraine as a state governed by the rule of law.

With this in mind, the UNBA Committee on Information Policy and Media Relations has prepared a draft Law «On Amendments to the Code of Ukraine on Administrative Offenses to Establish Liability for Violation of the Guarantees of Practice of Law».

It is noted that the problem of identifying a lawyer with a client has become particularly acute with a sharp increase in the number of criminal proceedings related to the armed aggression of the Russian Federation, as well as the consideration of cases involving representatives of the aggressor state and their accomplices.

The document proposes to introduce a new administrative offense in the Code of Administrative Offenses that encroaches on the established order of governance and to establish penalties for its commission:

«Article 185-16. Violation of the prohibition of identification of the advocate and client

1. Public, including through the mass media, journalists, public associations, trade unions, identification by a person of an advocate and a client, to whom such advocate provides legal aid, shall

shall entail a fine of one hundred to two hundred tax-free minimum incomes for citizens and two hundred to three hundred tax-free minimum incomes for officials.

2. Actions envisaged by part one of this Article, committed by a person who was subjected to an administrative penalty for the same violation within a year

shall be punishable by a fine of four hundred to six hundred tax-free minimum incomes».

The UNBA believes that cases of identification of a lawyer with a client should be considered by judges of district, city, city or city district courts (Article 221 of the Code of Administrative Offenses), and reports on these offenses should be drawn up by the heads of regional bar councils or authorized members of these councils (clauses 9-1, part 1, Article 255 of the Code of Administrative Offenses).

The draft law with the relevant justification was sent to Volodymyr Vatras, Chairman of the Subcommittee on Organization and Activities of the Bar, Legal Aid Bodies of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Legal Policy.