Meeting of the PASO Council

On February 25, 2021, a regular meeting of the Council of the Chamber of Lawyers of the Samara Region was held. It was run online using the Zoom program.

The Council considered four applications for the termination of the status of a lawyer, two of them in connection with death.

One application for a change in membership in the Chamber of Advocates of the Samara Region was approved.

Five lawyers have applied for advanced training hours. In three cases, the Council was forced to refuse due to the fact that the Standard for Professional Training of Lawyers and Trainees, adopted by the IX All-Russian Congress of Lawyers on April 18, 2019, was already fulfilled by lawyers.

The PASO Council approved three applications for the establishment of lawyers' offices, and one for liquidation.

Two lawyers filed applications for early withdrawal of disciplinary sanctions in the form of comments. One of them was approved by the Council. The second was denied, while the remark itself was imposed on the lawyer only four months ago. This refusal does not prevent the lawyer from again filing a similar statement.

Seventeen lawyers were included in the subsidized legal aid system.

Forty-five disciplinary proceedings were considered by the Council.

Thirty-two were instituted on the proposal of the vice-president of the PASO based on the results of the examination of lawyer proceedings against lawyers working on the appointment of the bodies of inquiry, investigation and the court in the city of Syzran. In all cases, the PASO Council decided to terminate the disciplinary proceedings due to the insignificance of the misdemeanor committed by the lawyer, indicating to the lawyer the violation. Most of the misconduct of lawyers was associated with a lack of understanding of the duties of a lawyer appointed by the court as a representative in accordance with Art. 50 GPK. The lawyers did not systematically appeal against judicial acts and did not take away receipts from the principals to refuse to appeal them, guided by the fact that this article of the Code of Civil Procedure contains the wording "a lawyer ... has the right to appeal against court decisions in this case." Recognizing these actions as insignificant, the PASO Council explained to lawyers that the Standard for the participation of a defense lawyer in criminal proceedings, despite its name, applies to all cases of participation of a lawyer in cases on appointment by virtue of Art. 13 of the CPEA, in the same way as the provisions of this article apply to appeal against a court ruling on the choice of a preventive measure, etc. proceedings on the application of compulsory measures of a medical nature, recognition of a citizen as incapable, etc., he is obliged to appeal the judicial act, if the court did not share the position of his client. Otherwise, in the lawyer's proceedings there must be a handwritten receipt of the principal to refuse to appeal. Neither the position of his relatives, nor the state of health of a citizen are grounds for a lawyer to ignore this rule.

In the event that a court session is held using a videoconferencing system, the only way to comply with the requirements of the Code is to video record the verbal refusal to appeal a judicial act expressed to a lawyer using a mobile phone or any other device. The audit revealed a systemic misunderstanding by the lawyers of the above-mentioned norms in their relationship, in connection with which the Council supported the proposal of the President of PASO T.D. Butovchenko to direct efforts to bring the provisions of the Standard to lawyers through training on the need to properly protect the rights of principals in these categories of cases, and not to apply disciplinary measures.

In the near future, the Togliatti branch of PASO will hold a training course for lawyers, dedicated to the peculiarities of the work of a lawyer appointed by the bodies of inquiry, preliminary investigation and court.

Two disciplinary proceedings were related to non-payment of membership fees. One of the lawyers paid off the debt before the meeting, in connection with which the Council limited itself to a comment. The situation with the second was more serious. He was in arrears over the past six months, while earlier the lawyer had six disciplinary sanctions. He did not get in touch for six months, he did not pay off the debt. In such circumstances, the Council concluded that it had lost contact with the Bar Association and decided to terminate the status.

In other cases not related to verification or fees, the PASO Council terminated disciplinary proceedings against nine out of ten lawyers. In relation to one lawyer, the members of the Council hesitated for a long time between termination of the status and a warning, but nevertheless, not unanimously, but decided to keep the status of the lawyer.

The meeting of the Council ended with pleasant decisions. Based on the statements of the principals, letters of gratitude were announced to six lawyers, and candidates for the presentation of lawyers to the awards and incentives of the FPA RF were also approved.

PASO Press Center