PASO Council meeting

On June 29, the next meeting of the PASO Council took place. According to tradition, it began with the taking of the oath.

The Council received three applications for suspension, six for termination, and one for renewal of the status of a lawyer.

The status of two lawyers was terminated due to death. The members of the Council honored the memory of Natalia Sergeevna Veselova and Vladislav Anatolyevich Maltsev with mournful silence.

Two lawyers notified the Council about changing their membership in PASO to a bar association of another region, and two more notified the Council about the implementation of the Standard of professional training and professional development. Two new law offices were established and one was liquidated. Based on the applications of clients, seven lawyers were thanked.

Sixteen lawyers were included in the SYUP system. At the same time, the Council reviewed the certificate of the SYUP Center, which contained information about lawyers who systematically (in more than 60% of cases) refuse to accept claims. Based on this certificate, 46 lawyers were excluded from the SYUP list.

According to paragraph 25 of the PASO Council Decision No. 14-11-08/SP dated November 27, 2014, information on systematic refusals (more than 60% of calls) to accept requests is sent to the Council of the Chamber of Advocates of the Samara Region twice a year by the head of the PASO SYUP Center to exclude a lawyer from the List. In this case, the lawyer has the right to re-apply for inclusion in the List. The PASO Council decided to amend this paragraph, clarifying the procedure for submitting an application. From June 29, 2023, a lawyer excluded from the SYUP List will have to submit an application for re-inclusion in the List not to the SYUP Center, but to the PASO Council for consideration at the next meeting. The Council draws the attention of lawyers to the fact that the number of lawyers participating in the SYUP system is constantly growing and currently amounts to 806 people. In such circumstances, calling lawyers who constantly refuse to make demands creates significant and pointless labor costs for the employees of the SYUP Center. If a lawyer wants to remain in the SYUP system, but temporarily does not need new demands due to employment, vacation, illness, etc., he can always contact SYUP with an application for temporary suspension of his participation in the system. This can be done even by phone or through the Internet-PASO system. In this case, the automated distribution of demands program will temporarily block the lawyer's name and stop issuing it to coordinators for calling. The blocking can be lifted at any time also upon the lawyer's application to the SYUP Center.

The PASO Council heard a report on the results of an individual inspection of the provision of subsidized legal services in accordance with Art. 50 Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation, execution of decisions of the bodies of the bar association of assistance to the lawyer P.

The decision to conduct an inspection was made at the meeting of the Council on 23.05.2023 due to the fact that the lawyer has not yet reported on two order books for work as intended, issued to him in 2020, demanded the issuance of new orders, refused to report on the use of previously received orders.

The Council noted the unsatisfactory quality of the dossiers submitted to him for inspection. Most of them included only the title page and an application for payment. The Council pointed out the existing violations to the lawyer and explained that the obligation to present the stubs of previously issued order books still remains, and new orders cannot be issued without verification.

The President of the PASO T.D. Butovchenko acquainted the Council with the conclusion of the Commission on Ethics and Standards of the Federal Chamber of Lawyers of the Russian Federation on the complaint of the lawyer N. The lawyer was convicted in a criminal case, but did not report this to the Chamber and continued to carry out professional activities. Since his ID remained in the criminal case, he applied to the PASO for a certificate that he was an attorney, saying that he had lost his ID. He continued to work on this certificate, including upon request. When the PASO received information that there was a guilty verdict against attorney N. that had entered into legal force, the PASO Council terminated his status from the moment the verdict entered into legal force, which directly follows from the requirements of paragraph 2 of Article 9 of the Federal Law "On Advocacy and the Bar in the Russian Federation". The attorney appealed the Council's decision to terminate his status in terms of the date from which it was terminated, believing that this should have been done from the date of the Council's decision.

In this case, there is a legislative gap between the obligation of the regional chamber to terminate the status of an attorney who has an outstanding or unexpunged conviction and the absence of an obligation for the court to notify the Chamber of the issuance of such a verdict. Art. Article 312 of the Code of Criminal Procedure provides for a list of entities to whom a verdict or a copy thereof is handed over, and the regional Chamber is not among them.

During the meeting of the Council of the FPA RF, on the initiative of the President of the PASO T.D. Butovchenko, the need to initiate a legislative initiative in this regard was discussed. Given the existing gap in the law, the FPA RF agreed with the lawyer's arguments. In this regard, the PASO Council decided to change the previously adopted decision to terminate its status in terms of the date.

The Council of the Chamber of Advocates of the Samara Region decided to conclude a cooperation agreement with the State Fund for Support of Participants in the Special Military Operation "Defenders of the Fatherland". A letter with an offer to participate in the implementation of this agreement was sent to lawyers via the Internet-PASO system. The purpose of the cooperation is to create conditions for competent, qualified and free resolution of legal issues arising from citizens specified in paragraphs. "c" paragraph 2 of the Decree of the President of the Russian Federation dated 03.04.2023 No. 232 "On the establishment of the State Fund for the support of participants in the special military operation "Defenders of the Fatherland" (veterans and their family members), related to the registration and provision of social support measures, as well as legal information and legal education on issues related to the registration (restoration) of documents and obtaining the status of a veteran of military operations in accordance with the legislation of the Russian Federation.

The PASO Council reviewed the appeal of lawyer E. and approved the text of the explanations to it. The lawyer was assigned a requirement to defend an accused in a criminal case to a wanted person. After that, a lawyer by agreement entered the case and demanded that his colleague stop working on the case. Lawyer E. applied to the investigator with a corresponding petition, which was denied. The investigator indicated that the basis for the release of the appointed lawyer can only be the expression of the will of the client. Since the defendant in the case is wanted and cannot express his will to refuse one lawyer and accept the defense of another, in the opinion of the investigator, both should remain in the case. Lawyer E. contacted the PASO Council for clarification on how he should act in this situation. Without sharing the investigator's position, the PASO Council indicated that the lawyer does not have the right to refuse the defense contrary to the decision of the person in charge of the case, which means that he should continue working on the case and with full right submit an application for payment to the investigator.

DISCIPLINARY PROCEEDINGS

The PASO Council reviewed nine disciplinary proceedings.

Three were terminated due to the absence of violations in the actions of the lawyers established by the Qualification Commission, one - in connection with the reconciliation of the lawyer and the client, and another - in connection with the withdrawal of the court's appeal.

Four proceedings were considered on the merits.

In the first case, the client filed a complaint due to the fact that the lawyer, in her opinion, arbitrarily, against her will, participated in the court hearing, and also violated financial discipline by accepting a fee from her on a personal bank card. The client lives in another city and all communication with the lawyer took place by phone, the agreement was concluded by e-mail. The Qualification Commission recognized the client's claims regarding the quality of the lawyer's performance of his duties as unfounded. The subject of the agreement was fulfilled by her in full. The Commission noted that the lawyer's receipt of funds on a personal bank card does not comply with the requirements of Part 6 of Article 25 of the Federal Law "On Advocacy and the Bar in the Russian Federation", Part 1 of Article 8 of the Code of Professional Ethics of a Lawyer. The PASO Council issued a reprimand to the lawyer, noting that receiving a fee on a personal card is unacceptable under any circumstances. If the client pays the fee by bank transfer, they must be transferred to the current account of the advocacy association. For the convenience of clients, to relieve them from the need to enter the details of the legal entity in the mobile application, a QR code can be generated.

 

The second complaint was filed against a lawyer who accepted an assignment to represent the interests of the defendant, an individual, in a claim filed by a utility company for more than a million rubles. The lawyer received an advance fee and original documents from the client, took part in a preliminary court hearing, and that was the end of his work on the case. He did not file a response to the claim or other procedural documents with the court, and stopped showing up for hearings. One hearing was postponed due to a call from the lawyer, who said less than an hour before it began that he was ill. He did not show up for the next hearing and did not warn either the court or the client about it. The court considered the case in his absence and satisfied the claim in full, since the defendant did not file any objections. When the client demanded a refund of the fee, the lawyer returned only part of it, citing the fact that he had “worked off” the rest of the amount. The Council issued him a warning about the termination of his status. A warning was also issued to a lawyer who left the court session despite the presiding judge's prohibition "in protest" against the refusal to satisfy his petition. Such emotional outbursts, as a result of which the client is left without protection, are a direct violation of the Code of Criminal Procedure and the norms of procedural legislation.

The PASO Council, the President and members of self-government bodies have repeatedly pointed out to lawyers the inadmissibility of such actions. In the event of violations of the rights of the client or lawyer by the investigator or the court, the lawyer is obliged to take measures provided by law to record and appeal these violations, and not to leave the process.

The last case was initiated at the request of the Samara Regional Court. The video recording from the courtroom attached to it clearly showed the lawyer handing over a plastic bag to her client, who was in custody. As it turned out later, there were two cell phones in it. The lawyer was brought to administrative responsibility in the form of a fine. Such violations of the law are absolutely unacceptable, discredit the lawyer as a participant in the proceedings and cause significant harm to the authority of the Bar in the eyes of the judicial system and law enforcement agencies. Transferring items in violation of the procedure established by law is not only a violation of the law, but also carries an exceptional public danger. Anything can be handed over to a lawyer under the guise of a chocolate bar or a pack of cigarettes, including explosives, weapons, etc. In this regard, lawyers must have an unconditional understanding that accepting any items from relatives and other persons for transfer to the client is prohibited. The PASO Council unanimously decided to terminate the status of this lawyer. She will be able to retake the qualification exam in a year - in September 2024.

PASO Press Center