Commissions for assessing the quality of FLA will clarify the status and procedure of their work

The Bar Council of Ukraine has approved drafts of a new version of the Regulations on the commission for the assessment of the quality of FLA and the Rules of procedure for its activities. They are intended to systematically update the procedures for considering appeals, the grounds for making decisions, and the interaction of commissions with bar self-government bodies.

The existing developments were considered during the meeting of the Bar Council of Ukraine, which is taking place on December 12-13.

As a reminder, commissions for assessing the quality, completeness, and timeliness of free legal aid are permanent collegial bodies under regional bar councils that consider appeals from local government bodies, centers, and institutions of the FLA system regarding the work of advocates in specific cases. Their task is to assess, on the basis of the materials and explanations submitted, whether legal aid was provided properly and, in the event of violations, to make recommendations or initiate disciplinary action.

The draft Regulation proposes, in particular, to establish the legal status and tasks of the commissions, their composition and powers, the basic provisions for considering issues at meetings, reporting, and interaction with the bodies of the Ukrainian National Bar Association, the Committee on FLA and the Higher School of Advocacy.

The BCU confirmed that all commissions currently in operation will automatically continue their work without the need for re-establishment or re-election.

The current Regulations, approved by the BCU decision of 15 December 2017 No. 281, define the Quality Standards for FLA developed by the Ministry of Justice as the main guideline for the work of the commissions and require the actions of advocates to be assessed according to these Standards. The new Regulations will give priority to the laws «On advocacy and legal practice», «On Free Legal Aid», the Rules of professional conduct for lawyers and the acts of the BCU, and will allow the application of the Ministry of Justice Standards only in the absence of conflicts with these acts.

«In order to ensure compliance with the guarantee of independence of advocacy, we must change the approach to the work of the commissions: they should not rely on executive authority documents as the main ones. The assessment should be carried out primarily within the framework of the legislation on the practice of law and the decisions of the advocacy self-government bodies», - commented BCU member Oksana Kadenko on the changes.

The regulations will establish a procedural framework for the work of the commissions: they will outline the rules for preparing materials and considering appeals, organizing and conducting meetings, recording minutes, communicating with participants in the process, adopting and formalizing decisions, and communicating them to interested parties. It is derived from the Regulations and is intended to unify the practice of commissions in the regions, ensure the predictability of procedures, and minimize procedural risks without changing the content of the powers defined by the Regulations.

The drafts will be submitted for consideration by an expanded working group consisting of representatives of the UNBA, the Ministry of Justice and the Coordination center for legal aid. «All stakeholders in this process have provided us with their representatives. The working group has been formed and will now have to agree on the wording with all participants in the process, unify procedural approaches, and prepare a consolidated text of the documents for further consideration by the BCU», - explained O. Kadenko.