Meeting of the Qualification Commission of the PASO

On June 15, 2023, the next meeting of the Qualification Commission of the Chamber of Advocates of the Samara Region was held, during which ten disciplinary proceedings were considered. The grounds for the proceedings were three court reports and seven complaints from clients.

Based on the results of the consideration: the arguments of four appeals were found to be justified and violations of the requirements of the legislation on advocacy and the bar were established in the actions of the lawyers; in three cases, the Commission did not find any disciplinary offense in the actions of the lawyers; two disciplinary proceedings were terminated due to reconciliation of the parties and withdrawal of the appeal; consideration of one disciplinary proceeding was postponed for reasons recognized by the commission as valid.

Interesting: an appeal was received from a judge of the Samara Regional Court, from which it follows that the defense attorney of one of the accused, without authorization, without the permission of the presiding judge, secretly from the convoy officers, handed over a package to the defendant, which included, among other things, two cell phones. These circumstances are confirmed by a video recording from courtroom No. 5 of the Samara Regional Court. A protocol on an administrative offence was drawn up on the above-mentioned fact.

The lawyer denies the circumstances set out in the court's appeal in her explanations, pointing out that they do not correspond to reality. According to the lawyer: in the corridor in front of the courtroom, one of the defendants, who was not under arrest, handed her a transparent plastic bag, allegedly from relatives of her client, which contained several chocolate bars and a couple of lighters. The defender asked the escort to hand over this package, however, the escort service employee prohibited the transfer. The lawyer decided to return the package to the "sender" after the hearing. After the announcement of a lunch break, the defender noticed that the defendant who handed her the package left the courtroom. The ill-fated package did not fit in the lawyer's bag, so it remained on the bench, because the defender planned to return to the same place after lunch. However, the package was not found there. Continuing the court session after the break, the presiding judge announced that the cell phone had been handed over to the defendant.

The lawyer insists that she did not hand over the package to the defendants; she only found out how it ended up in their hands after watching the video recording from the courtroom.

The Qualification Commission, having reviewed the materials of the disciplinary proceedings, including the video recording from courtroom No. 5 of the Samara Regional Court, as well as the court ruling, which found the lawyer guilty of committing an administrative offense under Article 19.12 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation, with the imposition of an administrative penalty in the form of a fine, found that the lawyer's actions constituted a disciplinary offense. The lawyer, by virtue of her professional activities, could not have been unaware of the inadmissibility of such actions, since she was aware of items prohibited from being handed over to persons held in penal institutions or temporary detention facilities and other places of detention. The actions of a specific defense attorney discredit the attorney as a participant in the proceedings and cause significant harm to the authority of the Bar.

Three disciplinary proceedings concerned the assessment of the quality of legal assistance provided by attorneys as assigned. The Qualification Commission carefully checks the compliance of the defense attorneys' actions with the interests and position of the defendant, the requirements of the legislation on advocacy and the Bar, and the Standard for the implementation of defense by an attorney in criminal proceedings. The questionnaire, protocols of investigative actions and court hearings, interim and final judicial acts, petitions, appeals, receipts from defendants: on the agreement of the position/on the refusal to appeal the judicial act/on the absence of any claims against the defense attorney, "illustrate" your work, from these documents one can draw a conclusion about the activity, honesty, integrity and qualifications of the defense attorney. The questionnaire guarantees confirmation of the attorney's actions in accordance with the requirements of the Standard of participation of the defense attorney in criminal proceedings at the stage of joining the case.

A heated discussion among the members of the Commission was caused by the disciplinary proceedings on the complaint of citizen K. against lawyer V.

It follows from the complaint that an agreement on the provision of legal assistance was concluded between the applicant and the lawyer, according to which the lawyer "was supposed to familiarize herself with the court decision and the appeal in the civil case, agree on a position on the said case, and defend her interests in the Samara Regional Court at the court hearing on March 28, 2023 at 15:30." On the eve of the court hearing in the appellate instance, the applicant wrote to lawyer V. with the intention of agreeing on a position on the case, as well as with a request to familiarize herself with the case materials, to which the lawyer responded with a refusal. A request to record the court hearing on a dictaphone due to the client's absence from the hearing was also refused. In connection with these circumstances, the applicant asked "not to defend interests on March 28, but instead, on account of the 5,000 rubles paid to her, to familiarize herself with the case materials later, to which she agreed." On March 29, it turned out that the lawyer, contrary to the will of the client, "went to the court hearing of her own accord." Separately, the applicant pointed out the violation of financial discipline by the lawyer, since the latter accepts payment for legal assistance to a personal account, and not to the account of the law firm.

As part of the disciplinary proceedings, the lawyer provided explanations in which she categorically disagreed with the arguments of the complaint, stating that the work under the agreement was performed properly and in full. The lawyer additionally explained that communication with the client "was only by telephone and the exchange of documents was by e-mail", since the applicant does not live in Samara.

The Commission, having studied the materials of the disciplinary proceedings, believes that the arguments of the complaint about the lawyer providing legal assistance of inadequate quality, as well as about actions contrary to the will of the client, have not found their objective confirmation and cannot be established.

However, the Qualification Commission established the elements of a disciplinary offense, expressed in the violation by the lawyer of the requirements of Article 25 of the Federal Law "On Advocacy and the Bar in the Russian Federation" in terms of formalizing relations with the client.

Disciplinary proceedings with the conclusions of the Qualification Commission will be considered by the Council of the Chamber of Advocates of the Samara Region on 06/29/2023.

PASO Press Center