PASO Council meeting

On May 23, the final meeting of the Council of the Chamber of Advocates of the Samara Region took place.

On May 26, the XXII anniversary conference of lawyers of the Samara region will be held.

The meeting began with a solemn swearing in by eleven applicants who had successfully passed the qualifying exam.

PASO President T.D. Butovchenko reported to the members of the Council the results of the work of the Chamber in 2021 and for 20 years since the formation of the PASO, which will be announced at the Conference.

The members of the Council heard a report on the use of earmarked funds of the Chamber of Advocates of the Samara Region for the period from January 01, 2021 to December 31, 2021 and voted for its approval.

Council members approved the report on the work of the PASO Council for 2021, listened to the report on the work of the PASO Audit Commission for the past year, which will be presented to the delegates of the Conference.

Council members have adopted a draft PASO income and expenditure estimate for 2022, which will be submitted for approval by the delegates.

The PASO Council approved the voting procedure for the delegates of the Twenty-second (regular) annual conference of lawyers of the Samara Region during the election of members of lawyers' self-government bodies.

The approval of the members of the Council, leaving it in the order of rotation, will take place in the form of open voting by ballots.

Elections of new members of the Council will be held in the form of electronic secret rating voting. Each delegate will be asked to select from a list of four candidates for membership on the PASO Council. Elections to the PASO Qualification Commission will be held similarly.

Rating voting at the Conference will be organized electronically for the first time.

To do this, delegates will need a phone or other mobile device capable of reading a QR code. Each delegate's ballot will have a QR code that redirects him to a special program, as well as an individual login and password for voting, which only he can use and only once. Prior to voting, delegates will be given detailed instructions on how to use the program, technical staff will be on duty in the room to assist lawyers, and there will also be laptops from which they can vote if they cannot do so from their own mobile device. The program will monitor the accuracy of the count of votes by the counting commission from among the delegates of the Conference. Electronic voting will significantly reduce the time for counting votes, which is much more complicated in rating voting, and optimize the time of the Conference.

Further, during the meeting, the PASO Council satisfied two applications and two - on the termination of the status of a lawyer. Seventeen lawyers were credited with professional development hours, including for participating in the Young Lawyer's School project. Eleven lawyers were included in the SYP system. The lawyers notified the PASO Council of the establishment of two new cabinets. Based on the statements of the principals, thanks were announced to two lawyers.

Disciplinary Proceedings

The PASO Council considered five disciplinary proceedings.

Two of them were initiated at the request of the judge.

In the first case, the court believed that the lawyer did not get acquainted with the case materials in a timely manner, which led to a delay in the process. The criminal case was received by the court on December 28, 2021. The court appointed the meeting for January 10, 2022, the first working day of the new year, at 16:00. The request was sent to the SYP Center on December 30, 2021 - on the last working day of the outgoing year, at 11:30 was accepted by the lawyer. According to the lawyer, in the afternoon she arrived at the court to familiarize herself with the case, but could not do this due to the shortening of the pre-holiday working day. At 16:00 on 01/10/2022, consideration of the petition for the extension of the period of detention of the defendant was scheduled. During the day, the lawyer did not get acquainted with the materials of the case, she appeared immediately before the start of the meeting. At the hearing, she filed a petition for adjournment due to the fact that she did not have time to familiarize herself with the case. The court granted both the request for an extension of the defendant's detention and the lawyer's request.

The Qualification Commission saw the presence of a disciplinary offense in the actions of the lawyer, who accepted the demand, realizing that she had very little time to familiarize herself with the case materials, did not even begin to familiarize herself with the materials before the meeting, and then filed a motion for adjournment. At the meeting of the Council, the lawyer referred to the fact that in the morning of January 11 she was busy in two cases, therefore she did not appear in court in the morning to familiarize herself with the materials.

The Council of the PASO agreed with the conclusion of the Qualification Commission on the presence of a disciplinary offense in the actions of the lawyer, expressed in accepting more cases than the lawyer is able to complete, however, considered it possible to terminate the disciplinary proceedings due to the insignificance of the committed misconduct.

At the same time, the Council pointed out to the lawyer the inadmissibility of her behavior. PASO receives more and more applications from judges in connection with violations on the part of lawyers, leading to disruption of court hearings and delays in the consideration of cases, since compliance with procedural deadlines is under strict control. At the same time, statistics show that due to the constant increase in the number of lawyers in the SF system, the requirements per lawyer in Samara and Tolyatti have become much lower compared to 2019-20. In such circumstances, when literally every requirement is valuable for lawyers in large cities of the Samara Region, and compliance with procedural deadlines is critically important for judges, lawyers should especially carefully assess the temporary possibilities, whether he will be able to fulfill the proposed requirement properly, or should he refuse and “transfer to his less busy colleague.

The desire to accept each incoming demand, which the lawyer clearly does not have time to fulfill in a timely manner, gives rise to grounds for claims from the court, is the basis for disciplinary proceedings and the exclusion of the lawyer from the SYP List.

In the second case, the court agreed in advance with the participants in the process a schedule of court hearings for a month in advance. On the appointed date of the court session, the lawyer did not appear. The meeting was scheduled for 2:00 pm. An hour before the meeting, she called the secretary and said that in the morning a search had begun at another client of hers and she was present during its proceedings. The search dragged on and she did not have time to attend the meeting. The PASO Council has repeatedly pointed out to lawyers that in such situations, when it is impossible to exclude the imposition of a sudden investigative action on a previously scheduled court session, the lawyer must give priority to the court. To help the second principal, it is necessary to have contacts of one of the colleagues, who, if necessary, can be contacted on a reciprocal basis. In this case, the lawyer was reprimanded.

Another proceeding was initiated on the proposal of the Vice President.

In the last complaint, the principals indicated that the lawyer had represented their interests by proxy in civil disputes for many years. In 2018, they contacted her to file a claim for the return of a debt under a loan agreement. The lawyer accepted the order, filed a lawsuit and represented their interests in court, despite the fact that by that time her status had been suspended and she had no right to practice law. Three years later, her husband filed a lawsuit against her former principals. The lawyer herself was involved in the case as a third party and presented objections to the arguments of the defendants. The claim was denied.

After that, the lawyer and her husband filed an application to bring the defendants - her former clients - to criminal liability. In the opinion of the principals, she also submitted to the investigating authorities documents received by her in the course of providing legal assistance and constituting an attorney-client secret, however, when considering the disciplinary proceedings by the Qualification Commission, the applicants could not confirm these arguments.

Regarding the provision of legal assistance during the period when her status was suspended, the lawyer explained that she helped the principals free of charge, as she considered them “close people”. The Commission did not agree with these arguments, since the indicated persons were not her relatives. The subsequent filing of a crime report against them further refuted her arguments.

Under such circumstances, the PASO Council decided to terminate the status of a lawyer with a subsequent ban on passing a qualifying exam for three years.

PASO Press Center