About the test results. General remarks.

The provision of subsidized legal aid or assignment work is an activity that is gaining popularity every year. An indexed pay rate, government guarantees... and - nothing, but the stability of the income side of the lawyer's family budget. Today, there are 845 lawyers on the List in the Samara Region, which is half of the number of active lawyers in the region. The number is increasing monthly. Since this sector of activity is attractive, everyone is trying to preserve it, and, therefore, they must comply with the established rules, honor the Standard, maintain a dossier.

Dear colleagues, remember!

You signed the application for inclusion in the List: “I am familiar with the decision of the PASO Council dated November 27, 2014 No. 14-11-08 / SP, the procedure for exercising control over the quality of the provision of subsidized legal aid, and I undertake to comply.”

Why are inspections carried out?

Firstly, the money is budgetary, there should be control over the quality of the assistance provided, and this is categorical (and it’s good that the supervisory body is within the corporation).

Secondly, a rolling check of the actions of the defense counsel in the appointment for compliance with the requirements of the law and the Standard disciplines and inevitably improves the quality of legal assistance provided.

Thirdly, the effectiveness of the work of the Center for Subsidized Legal Aid is checked, both technical and personal, and adjustments are made to the software.

So check! A “terrible” and exciting professional event that has been held on a regular basis since 2008 and to which everyone should have gotten used to for a long time. But every time: questions, discussions, indignation, comments, and sometimes undisguised aggression!

Although what is simpler: they heard about the check, removed the dossier for the required period from the shelf and delivered it to the address indicated in the decision on the check within the prescribed time.

The following are responsible for delivering information about the verification to the lawyer: the official website www.paso.ru, the InternetP@SO system, the PASO.ru mobile application, the Samara-51 WhatsApp group and, in extreme cases, if the previous options are “unavailable”, communication with colleagues.

There are numerous options for explaining the reasons for not providing the dossier, but they have all been exhausted: “The computer burned down / drowned / virus”, “I’m on vacation”, “I don’t read anything! Why couldn’t they call?”, “Colleagues don’t like me, so everyone was silent on purpose ...”, “They got it with their checks”, etc. - They are not valid reasons.

Let's go back to today:

On 09/29/2022, a decision was made to conduct an inspection for the period from 01/01/2022 to 03/31/2022 in the Zheleznodorozhny and Industrial districts of the city of Samara, city of Chapaevsk, Volzhsky, Stavropolsky districts of the Samara region.

On September 30, 2022, the notification system was launched: each lawyer received a letter with the Decision of the PASO Council on the ongoing verification to their personal email box via the InternetP@SO system, it was also published on the official website of the Chamber of Lawyers and beeped as a push notification in the mobile application.

According to the Center for SF PASO, 381 lawyers “fell” under the check, 330 of which faithfully submitted the dossier to the inspectors.

The deadline for submitting the dossier was set until 10/10/2022, and in fact the lawyers, for various (good) reasons, reported the dossier until 11/23/2022, no one was refused admission, the inspectors worked until the “last client”.

51 the lawyer did not hear about the check, did not want to hear, did not consider it necessary to execute the decision of the Chamber of Lawyers, this work is of no interest (choose the right one). The reasons for non-compliance by lawyers with the requirements of the decisions of the Bar Association are subject to disciplinary consideration, but for now, the distribution of claims to them by the Center for SF PASO has been suspended.

The results of the check will traditionally be sent to each lawyer to a personal e-mail box via the Internet P@SO system, follow the mail.

Let's dwell on general comments and recommendations:

Organizational issue: given that the PASO.ru mobile application provides an opportunity for each lawyer to track the requirements distributed to him in a specific period of time, the completeness of the information provided for verification should not have caused difficulties, however, a number of lawyers did not cope with this task, they provided only part of the dossier , earning cautions.

Please note: checks are always carried out by administrative districts! The sixth court of cassation of general jurisdiction is located in the Zheleznodorozhny district of Samara, the Samara regional court - in the Samara district of Samara, the Samara garrison military court - in the Oktyabrsky district of Samara, etc. This is not news, everyone, being included in the List, confirms with a tick and signature the consent to participate in legal proceedings in the declared administrative region. Moreover, some lawyers specifically go to a specific administrative region in order to participate in the regional or cassation courts, but “forget” to provide a dossier during checks, “sincerely” surprised about the relevance of the claims distributed to these courts to the array being checked.

In essence: The obligatory conduct of lawyer proceedings (dossier) is established by the Lawyer's Code of Professional Ethics. What is a lawyer's file, for what purposes is it maintained, how is it formed, how long is it kept, etc. is described in detail in the Decision of the PASO Council "On maintaining a lawyer's file" dated 03/01/2007 (you can refresh the data here - https://paso.ru/dlya-advokatov/resheniya-soveta-paso.html).

When submitting lawyer proceedings for verification, it is necessary to understand that the inspector examines printed and electronic materials for the compliance of the actions of the defender with the interests and position of the client, the requirements of the law on advocacy and the legal profession, the Standard for the implementation of a defense lawyer in criminal proceedings.

Questionnaire, protocols of investigative actions and court hearings, interim and final judicial acts, petitions, appeals, receipts of the defendants: on the agreement of the position / on the refusal to appeal the judicial act / on the absence of any claims against the defense counsel, “illustrate” your work, From these documents, one can conclude about the activity, honesty, conscientiousness and qualifications of the defender.

The questionnaire (download and use on the paso.ru website) guarantees confirmation of the actions of a lawyer in accordance with the requirements of the Standard for the participation of a defense lawyer in criminal proceedings at the stage of joining a case.
Separately, the fulfillment by lawyers of the requirements of Art. 13 of the Code of Professional Ethics of a Lawyer, paragraph 9 and paragraph 16 of the Standard for the implementation by a lawyer of defense in criminal proceedings in terms of appealing interim and final judicial acts, other decisions that violate the rights and legitimate interests of the client.

If the court did not share the lawyer's position, and the defendant's refusal to appeal against the judicial act in writing was not received by the lawyer, there must be an appeal!

To the implementation of protection according to Art. 50 Code of Civil Procedure of the Russian Federation, by analogy, the rules governing the implementation of a defense lawyer in criminal proceedings, including Part 4 of Art. 13 of the Code of Professional Ethics of a Lawyer, obliging a lawyer-defender, if there are grounds, to appeal the final decisions of the court of first instance, except in cases where the principal directly and unequivocally prohibits the lawyer from filing a corresponding complaint.

A lawyer participating in cases related to the involuntary hospitalization of people with mental disorders, on his own initiative, is obliged to appeal against the application of procedural coercion measures against the principal that violate the rights and legitimate interests of the client.

A lawyer must proceed from the fact that receiving medical care is, first of all, the right of the citizen himself, and the provision of psychiatric care on an involuntary basis is always an exceptional situation associated with the restriction of the fundamental rights of the individual.

In cases of participation in the cassation instance, the dossier must contain procedural documents from which it is possible to draw a conclusion about the position taken by the lawyer, work, including because we are talking about an increased rate of payment.
The conscientiousness of a lawyer when billing the budget for legal assistance provided is a separate issue, and as part of the audit, “interesting” cases are identified that will definitely become the subject of consideration by the Qualification Commission.

For example: A citizen was accused under Part 1 of Art. 158 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, the stolen property was valued at 10,000 rubles, the criminal case was dismissed due to the reconciliation of the parties. In the framework of such a case, the defender submits the same type of petition to the court seven times on different days with a request to familiarize himself with the case materials, the protocol of the court session, and then on other court days he gets acquainted with these materials and protocols, asks for payment for each “action”, and ... the price tag of the legal assistance provided in this “complicated” case exceeds 50,000 rubles, which will be recovered by way of recourse to the unlucky principal.

Question: did the defender act in order to protect the interests of the principal or for reasons of his own benefit? Is there an abuse of the right to pay a lawyer at the expense of the budget?

The Qualification Commission will answer) The budget is a delicate matter!

Well, summing up, it is worth noting that the first inspections in the already distant 2008 were aimed at identifying "pocket" lawyers, developing skills and habits of conducting lawyer proceedings, and today we are working to improve the quality of legal services provided for the intended purpose, which is gratifying.

So we are on the right path!