The Verkhovna Rada proposes to grant lawyers a deferral from the draft (criteria)

The mobilization of lawyers has devastating consequences for the system of professional legal aid, as it violates the legal rights and interests of hundreds of thousands of citizens and legal entities to whom male lawyers provide professional legal aid.

This was drawn to the attention of MPs who prepared and submitted to the Verkhovna Rada the draft Law No. 12348 of 19.12.2024 «On Amendments to Article 23 of the Law of Ukraine «On Mobilization Preparation and Mobilization» regarding the provision of deferral from military service during mobilization to lawyers».

The document proposes to include attorneys in the list of persons entitled to deferment of military service during mobilization.

After discussions with the bar community, the authors of the initiative came to the conclusion that in order to more accurately determine the persons entitled to deferment from mobilization, certain criteria should be used, namely:

1) continuous experience in the practice of law for 10 years or more,

2) absence of arrears in payment of contributions to ensure the implementation of the bar self-government,

3) no information on bringing them to disciplinary responsibility for committing disciplinary offenses,

4) the right to practice law has not been terminated or suspended in accordance with the information in the Unified Register of Advocates of Ukraine (must be documented by a certificate of the Bar Council, where the advocate is registered).

It is noted that at the legislative level, the state has provided for the reservation of persons liable for military service who work or serve in the National Police, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau, the State Bureau of Investigation, the prosecutor's office, the State Criminal Executive Service, the Judicial Protection Service, courts, justice system institutions and pre-trial investigation bodies, and has granted a deferral to judges, judges of the Constitutional Court, members of the High Council of Justice, members of the High Qualification Commission of Judges, heads of the disciplinary service, and other persons liable for military service. This, in fact, jeopardizes the proper functioning of one of the branches of power.

Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation, the Ukrainian National Bar Association has been considering numerous appeals from lawyers regarding violations of professional rights and guarantees of the bar by employees of the TCC and the SS, interference with professional activities, illegal deprivation of liberty, and seizure of personal belongings, including those containing attorney-client privilege, in connection with the exercise of professional legal services. Violations of the rights of lawyers in the course of their practice of law cannot be justified by martial law. The systematic nature of such violations will inevitably lead to a violation of the fundamental principle of law - the rule of law.

The authors of the initiative also refer to the data of the National Bar Association of Ukraine, according to which the number of all military-obliged lawyers (male) who may be subject to mobilization, without having grounds for deferral or reservation, does not exceed 15 thousand.