UNBA offers a special procedure for identification and communication with attorneys in the UJITS

          Deputy Head of Ukrainian National Bar Association (hereinafter – the “UNBA”) and the Bar Council of Ukraine (hereinafter – the “BCU”) Valentyn Hvozdiy participated in the meeting of the Permanent Committee of the High Council of Justice (hereinafter - the “HCJ”) on the Unified Judicial Information and Telecommunication System.

          During the meeting, the draft Regulations on the Unified Judicial Information and Communication System (hereinafter – the “UJITS”) were discussed.

          “During the previous meetings with representatives of the HCJ and the State Judicial Administration (hereinafter – the “SJA”), we have repeatedly outlined the main problems identified by attorneys when working with the subsystem "Electronic Court", in particular, it is not possible to identify a person as an attorney in the personal account of the user of the subsystem "Electronic Court"; the system simply creates an account for an "individual", which is a serious defect taking into account the exclusive right of the bar to represent persons in court; the possibility of accepting and generating powers in electronic form has not been confirmed; there is any uncertainty regarding the possibility of recording and acceptance of electronic evidence by the courts", - said Valentyn Hvozdiy.

          Also, there are difficulties regarding generating and sending documents in the system; the ambiguous position of judges of different instances regarding the functioning of the subsystem "Electronic Court" was revealed, as well as the distrust of users of the subsystem, in particular attorneys, to the effectiveness of its implementation.

          "We have been cooperating with the SJA for a long time to ensure the synchronization of information with Unified Register of Attorneys of Ukraine with the subsystem "Electronic Court". On July 22, 2020, a Memorandum of Cooperation was signed between UNBA and the SJA. Currently, as a result of our joint work, we have already implemented and finishing testing such options as: ensuring verification of the powers of attorneys (status of attorneys) when using the tools of the subsystem "Electronic Court" through the Unified Register of Attorneys of Ukraine; creation of a separate function of the electronic account of the subsystem "Electronic Court" for attorneys - registration in the subsystem as an attorney, not just as an individual", - said Valentin Gvozdiy.

          According to his words, such projects as assigning an "official e-mail address" to each attorney (the official e-mail address of the attorney will be considered to be the attorney's account in Unified Register of Attorneys of Ukraine) and providing the possibility to use the subsystem "Electronic Court" for attorney's assistants are expected to be completed in 2021.

          “For successful implementation of this project, it is especially important for attorneys’ attorneys’ community to ensure that Regulation on UJITS provides the definition and procedure for authentication in the system. We prepared and provided you with our positions and we emphasize the necessity to consider them during the approval of the final version of the document” – said Valentin Gvozdiy during the meeting of the permanent committee of the HCJ.

There are such proposals to the discussed draft Regulation as the implementation of authentication of a person practicing as an attorney as the procedure that allows confirming the electronic identification of an attorney using the Unified Register of Attorneys of Ukraine. Therefore, the identification data of an attorney should be the number and date of issue of a bar certificate.

             UNBA also proposes to provide that an attorney's personal online account in the UJITS systems would constitute his/her e-mail address. Official e-mail addresses of attorneys are created following the procedure established in the Unified Register of Attorneys of Ukraine. The official e-mail address of an attorney should therefore be created by synchronized operation of the subsystem "Electronic Court" with the Unified Register of Attorneys of Ukraine.

          According to the suggestion of UNBA, the Regulation also should take into account other features of the Law of Ukraine “On the Bar and Legal Practice”, in particular, client-attorney privilege. UJITS should also provide attorneys with the opportunity to provide access to draft documents they created for review, an amendment by an attorney's assistant who carries out the attorney’s instructions in cases before the attorney, except for those related to the attorney's procedural powers.

          Reminder: Valentyn Hvozdiy heads the UNBA Working Group on e-Justice Implementation in Ukraine.