PASO COUNCIL MEETING 12/17/2020

On December 17, 2020, the last meeting of the Council of the Chamber of Lawyers of the Samara Region took place in the outgoing year.

The Council granted four applications for suspension and one for renewal of the status of a lawyer.

On the basis of a personal statement, the status of four lawyers was terminated and the membership of two lawyers in the Chamber of Lawyers of the Samara Region was changed.

The Council was forced to reject the lawyer's application for the implementation of the Standard for professional training and professional development of lawyers and trainees of lawyers, adopted by the IX All-Russian Congress of Lawyers on April 18, 2019, since the Standard was already implemented by the lawyer. Clause 13 of the Standard stipulates the obligation of a lawyer to improve his qualifications annually in the amount of at least 30, and for lawyers with up to 3 years of experience - at least 40 hours per year. Upgrading the professional level in the amount of more hours is encouraged, but does not imply "postponing" these hours for the next year.

During the meeting of the Council, applications for the establishment of five and the liquidation of two lawyers' offices were satisfied.

Fourteen applications were submitted to the Council for inclusion in the system of providing subsidized legal aid as a defense lawyer in criminal proceedings on the appointment of the bodies of inquiry, preliminary investigation bodies or the court in accordance with Art. 50 and 51 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation and as a representative in civil proceedings by appointment of a court in accordance with Art. 50 GPK. Thirteen of them were satisfied. One lawyer was denied due to the disciplinary sanction he had.

On the basis of personal statements of the principals, gratitude was announced to seventeen lawyers.

The Council considered five disciplinary proceedings.

Three of them were initiated on the basis of a complaint by convict K. While in prison, he is mainly engaged in appealing against actions or inaction of officials in 2014-15. After the next judicial act on such a complaint was passed, during a conversation with a lawyer, he orally informs that he refuses to appeal against it. If the lawyer does not record this refusal in writing, K. files a complaint against him.
After assessing all the circumstances established by the Qualification Commission, in all three cases a decision was made to terminate the disciplinary proceedings due to the insignificance of the misconduct committed by the lawyer, instructing the lawyers to better comply with the Standard for the participation of a defense lawyer in criminal proceedings.

The council considered the disciplinary proceedings against the lawyer K. She appeared at the request of the preliminary investigation authorities for questioning at night. The client, who had recently been released from prison and was suspected of committing a grave crime, expressed a desire to confess and was interrogated with her participation as a suspect and immediately as an accused. However, he gave detailed confessions. The lawyer did not take away from the client the receipt of the desire to testify precisely at night, as well as that the consequences of a full admission of guilt were explained to him. In the interrogation protocols, the lawyer's remarks about the interrogation at night were also absent. These overnight confessions made all further work on the case, first of the lawyer K., and then of the new lawyer, who took over the case after her, completely futile. The council reprimanded the lawyer.

Another disciplinary proceeding against lawyer P. caused almost no discussion among the members of the Council. The lawyer accepted the assignment on demand. On the same day, his client confessed. The dossier did not contain any traces of the lawyer's work on the case, except for the only request for a special procedure. The defendant was sentenced to imprisonment. The lawyer's complaint against the court's verdict contained only a request for a mitigation of punishment in connection with the presence of chronic diseases in the convict. Simultaneously with the complaint of the lawyer P., an appeal was filed by the prosecutor, in which he asked to exclude references from the judgment in terms of the qualification of the act, as well as a complaint from a lawyer invited on the basis of an agreement. The lawyer who re-entered the case pointed out the absence of corpus delicti in the defendant's act, as well as the circumstances that were not taken into account by the court of first instance when applying a special order. The appeal of the lawyer P. was dismissed, and the complaint of the lawyer, who began work under the agreement, in which the question of the absence of corpus delicti in the act was raised, was satisfied. The case was returned for new consideration. Assessing the appeal of the lawyer P. - there were no other traces of his work in the case in the dossier - the Qualification Commission noted the extremely low level of the complaint, clearly not meeting the requirements for the legal technique of the document. The position chosen by the lawyer in the case testified to his lack of knowledge of the practice of the Supreme Court in this category of cases. Exclusively due to the fact that earlier the lawyer P. did not have disciplinary sanctions, the PASO Council issued a warning to him about the termination of his status.

The council considered an exceptional situation in one of the bar associations. The only lawyer, which is a member, expressed a desire to transfer to another lawyer education. It was explained to her the need to liquidate the collegium in which she is a member, since after her departure the collegium will cease to exist. During the liquidation procedure, the Office of the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation for the Samara Region provided information that this collegium was liquidated by a court decision in 2014. Thus, the lawyer all this time provided legal assistance virtually outside the legal field - fees did not come, wrote out knowingly invalid orders, sent invalid lawyer requests, etc. All the legal consequences of this situation can only be assumed. The Council, by unanimous vote, instructed the vice-president of PASO to submit a proposal to initiate disciplinary proceedings against the lawyer.

V.I. Yankina Council Member reported on the results of the audit of lawyers' proceedings in relation to lawyers working on the appointment of the bodies of inquiry, investigation and the court in Syzran. The test results were disappointing. Half of the inspected lawyers were found to have violations. In all cases, disciplinary proceedings will be initiated. Acknowledgments were announced to two lawyers.

The Council considered the lawyer's request for clarification on two issues. First, the lawyer was interested in whether he was entitled to receive remuneration from third parties for placing their advertisements on his Instagram account. The Council concluded that this does not contradict the Code of Professional Ethics of the Lawyer, since this activity is not labor. However, when selecting advertisers, a lawyer must adhere to the Rules of Conduct for Lawyers on the Information and Telecommunication Network "Internet", approved by the Council of the Federal Chamber of Lawyers of the Russian Federation on September 28, 2016 and not allow advertising in his account that violates these rules.

The lawyer's second question was how long he should wait for the start of the trial if the trial is delayed. The Council pointed out to the lawyer that despite the absence of instructions on the length of the waiting time in the Code of Civil Procedure, the CCP or the Lawyer's Code of Professional Ethics, the lawyer should proceed from the fact that he is not entitled to leave the hearing under any circumstances, as well as about the provisions of the CPEA, which expressly prescribe, that the fulfillment of professional duties on accepted assignments should have priority for a lawyer over other activities, as well as prohibiting accepting assignments for the provision of legal assistance in an amount that is obviously greater than the lawyer is able to fulfill. From these norms, in their interrelation, it follows that a lawyer is obliged to wait for the start of the court session even in case of delay.

At the end of the meeting, the PASO Council congratulated Natalia Yurievna Sukhova and Igor Alekseevich Zhdanov on the birthdays in December and wished the birthday people in the Zoom-meeting mode health, happiness and professional success.

PASO Press Center