PASO Board Meeting

On January 27, a regular meeting of the Council of the Chamber of Advocates of the Samara Region took place.

The PASO Council granted one application to change the membership of the PASO to a bar association of another region, two applications for the renewal of the status of a lawyer, five for suspension and three for termination. The status of one lawyer was terminated due to death: due to the coronavirus in the forty-fourth year, the life of Tatyana Aleksandrovna Gerasimova was cut short. The council honored the memory of their colleague with mournful silence.

Six lawyers were credited with professional development hours. The lawyers notified the Council of the establishment of four and the liquidation of three lawyers' offices. Nine lawyers are included in the system of subsidized assistance by appointment. Acknowledgments were made to ten lawyers.

PAYMENT OF LAWYERS BY APPOINTMENT

The Council of the PASO discussed the issue of remuneration for lawyers participating in criminal proceedings by appointment. Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation of September 29, 2020 No. 1561 “On the suspension of clause 2 of Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation of December 1, 2021 No. 1240” indexation of the amount of compensation for procedural costs associated with the payment of remuneration to lawyers participating in criminal cases by appointment of an interrogating officer, the investigator or the court was suspended until January 1, 2022. In this regard, the PASO Council decided to post on the official website www.paso.ru an updated application form for the remuneration of a lawyer participating in criminal proceedings as a defense counsel by appointment of bodies of inquiry, preliminary investigation or the court, indicating the amount of the lawyer's remuneration, taking into account the indexation by 4 percent.

The information was sent to the bodies of inquiry, investigation and court for information.

It is possible that in some cases lawyers may need to appeal against refusals to satisfy applications for increased payment, taking into account indexation, which will require an appeal against the issued acts, which, in turn, may lead to an increase in the time for receiving payment.

DISCIPLINARY PROCEEDINGS

The PASO Council considered seven disciplinary proceedings.

One of them was initiated on the proposal of the Vice President of PASO. Lawyer V. entered into an agreement with citizen F. to protect the interests of his son, who is on the wanted list. F. submitted an extract from his bank card, confirming that they had transferred funds to the lawyer's personal bank card on a monthly basis. Nine months after the conclusion of the agreement, the lawyer and the principal terminated the contract and signed an act of completion. According to the act, the work was performed by the lawyer qualitatively and on time. A few months later, F. turned to a lawyer with a claim to the quality of work and a demand for the return of the unworked part of the fee, which was denied to the principal. In response to the claim, the lawyer indicated that, according to their oral agreement, part of the money was intended for her for the protection of an accomplice in the same case. Part of the money transferred by her was transferred to lawyer S., who had an agreement with two other accomplices in the case. The lawyer pointed out that she did all this by oral agreement with F. At the same time, in the purpose of the payment, he himself indicated for the protection of which of the defendants he was transferring payment.

F. filed a complaint with the PASO and filed a claim with the court.

The lawyer deposited the funds to the collegium's settlement account almost a year later, after the initiation of disciplinary proceedings.

In the course of consideration of the complaint by the Qualification Commission, it was established that an agreement for the defense of B. by lawyer V. had not been concluded. Moreover, later she also defended the third accomplice - one of the M. brothers, and also without concluding an agreement. The only principal for whose protection she concluded an agreement was the son of F. The lawyer V. never received the written consent of the principal to protect him. In connection with the fact that the client was wanted, the actions of the lawyer in fulfilling the order were mainly limited to advising the father who paid for the agreement, which, in the opinion of the Qualification Commission, cannot be regarded as the fulfillment of the subject of the agreement and is not qualified legal assistance.

In written explanations and during the disciplinary proceedings, the lawyer did not deny that she had never met with her client, she did not know his position, and the criminal proceedings were suspended.

At the meeting of the Qualification Commission, the lawyer admitted that she had committed violations in terms of formalizing agreements, receiving funds and not depositing them into the current account of the lawyer's education, expressed regret about this, assured that she would not allow this in the future.

The Council of the PASO shared the opinion of the Commission in that part that the execution by lawyer V. of contractual and financial relations with the principals in this case does not stand up to criticism and forms a number of gross violations. Receiving funds by a lawyer on a personal card is unacceptable in itself. Payment by a lawyer of a fee from the funds contributed by the principal under the agreement concluded between them to another lawyer constitutes a direct violation of Art. 25 of the Federal Law “On advocacy and advocacy in the Russian Federation”, as well as oral acceptance of an order for defense.

Both the Federal Chamber of Lawyers of the Russian Federation and the PASO have repeatedly reminded lawyers of the need to refrain from accepting instructions to defend several defendants in one criminal case, since in such a situation one cannot be sure that the positions of accomplices will not diverge during the investigation or in court. According to Art. 13 KPEA, a lawyer is not entitled to protect two or more principals in a criminal case if the interests of one of them contradict the interests of the other, and also if these persons hold different positions on the same episodes of the case. Lawyer V. had never met her client and could not know his position on the circumstances of the criminal case. Under such conditions, she was not entitled to accept an assignment to protect his accomplices.

A separate remark was deserved by the clause contained in the agreement on the provision of legal assistance concluded by the lawyer with F., according to which “the amount of money received by the lawyer from the principal, intended for expenses, is not a fee and is not paid into the cash desk of the legal education”, which directly contradicts the requirements of part 6 tbsp. 25 of the Federal Law "On advocacy and advocacy in the Russian Federation".

At the same time, without justifying the violations of lawyer V., the PASO Council did not agree with the Conclusion of the Qualification Commission in the part that the lawyer did not have the right to enter into a criminal case until the written consent of her client, who was wanted, was received. Of course, the Standard for the implementation of a defense lawyer in criminal proceedings is subject to strict enforcement. Including clause 4 of the Standard, according to which, as part of the first meeting with the client, the lawyer is obliged to obtain consent to the provision of legal assistance under an agreement concluded in his interests by another person. Similar requirements are contained in Art. 50 Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation. However, it is precisely the situation when the principal is wanted that can be considered the only possible exception to this rule, and only in cases where the lawyer is forced to provide legal assistance without the consent of the principal, so that the latter is not at all left without protection.

Due to the fact that the young lawyer was disciplined for the first time, given her remorse for her misconduct, the PASO Council issued a termination warning to her.

Another disciplinary proceeding was also initiated on the basis of the client's complaint about the quality of the lawyer's work and her failure to pay the fee to the collegium's cash desk. The lawyer claimed that she was not paid the fee. She claimed that she had been doing quality work on the case for a whole year for free. She did not present written claims to the principal about non-compliance with the conditions on the payment procedure or requirements for payment. Council appointed disciplinary punishment in the form of a remark.

The PASO Council once again reminds lawyers that it is the lawyer's responsibility to properly draw up all the necessary terms of the agreement. If the fee specified in the section on payment does not contain a clause that the amount specified in the agreement was not paid at the time of signing the agreement and no other payment procedure is indicated, then it is presumed that the money was received by the lawyer, but not deposited to the current account of the lawyer education

Two other proceedings were initiated on the reports of the judges. In one case, a lawyer who was defending by appointment of the court arbitrarily left the meeting before the debate of the parties. The PASO Council issued a warning to him about the termination of his status.

In another case, the lawyer admitted that he mixed up the time and, in this regard, did not appear twice at the scheduled court hearings in the same case. Council announced a remark to the lawyer.

Four proceedings initiated at the request of the judges were terminated to the general satisfaction of the members of the Council and participants in the disciplinary proceedings due to the reconciliation of the parties.

ANNUAL REPORT AND ELECTION CONFERENCE

The Council of the Chamber of Advocates of the Samara Region adopted a decision to convene the Twenty-second (regular) annual conference of lawyers of the Samara Region on May 26, 2022. It will be held in the Conference Hall of the Ice Palace of Sports. There are no plans to increase the amount of monthly deductions for the maintenance of PASO.

PASO Press Center