PASO Council meeting

On June 30, a regular meeting of the Council of the Chamber of Advocates of the Samara Region took place.

The Council granted the applications of two lawyers for termination of membership in the Chamber in connection with moving to another region and one application for admission to the PASO membership from a lawyer who was previously a member of another regional chamber. On the basis of personal statements, the status of four lawyers was suspended and terminated - six lawyers, one of them - due to death.

Fifteen lawyers applied to be included in the SF system.

In one case, the Council refused - due to the presence of a disciplinary sanction on the lawyer.

Based on a certificate sent to the PASO Council by the Center for Subsidized Legal Aid, 55 lawyers were excluded from the list of the LA. The certificate contained information about lawyers who over the past six months have refused more than 70 percent of the claims they received. Some of them refused 100 percent of the time. According to the Rules for the implementation of the procedure for the appointment of lawyers as defense in criminal proceedings, approved by the decision of the Council of the PASO dated November 27, 2014, a lawyer is excluded from the lists of the LAJ in case of refusal of more than 60 percent of the requirements proposed to him. This does not prevent him at any time from re-applying for inclusion in this system.

The PASO Council received notices about the establishment of five and the liquidation of three lawyers' offices, the establishment of two colleges and one bureau.

On the basis of the statements of the principals, thanks were announced to thirteen lawyers.

The Council considered four disciplinary proceedings. Two of them were initiated at the request of the court.

In both cases, the lawyers did not appear at the hearings, for which they had good reasons, however, the court was not notified of these circumstances properly and in advance, as required by the provisions of the Lawyer's Code of Professional Ethics.

The PASO Council, agreeing with the conclusions of the Qualification Commission on the presence of a disciplinary offense in the actions of lawyers, considered it possible to terminate the proceedings due to insignificance.

The Council explained to the lawyers that in the presence of circumstances preventing participation in the court session, which arose even the night before or on the day of the court session, one should not hope that it will be possible to notify the court by phone, which may be busy. In such a situation, a notification should be sent to the e-mail of the court, if possible with the attachment of documents confirming the validity of the reason.

Two other proceedings were deferred.

The PASO Council considered the appeal of lawyer Lukyanchikov I.D., who proposed to amend the Decision of the PASO Council No. 14-11-08 / SP dated November 27, 2014, as amended on March 24, 2022, which approved the Rules of the Chamber of Advocates of the Samara Region on the execution of the Procedure for appointing lawyers as defenders in criminal proceedings.

The requirements for lawyers participating in the LA system have undergone changes. If earlier a lawyer who had a disciplinary sanction for misconduct that was not related to the quality of providing legal assistance to the principal could participate in it, then the new version of the decision excludes the participation in the LA system of a lawyer who has any disciplinary sanction.

In his appeal, the lawyer suggested that a lawyer be excluded from the LA system only after a repeated disciplinary offense was committed. The members of the Council listened to the lawyer and expressed their own opinion on this issue. Of course, in the conditions of an unstable economic situation in the country and in the world, the incomes of many citizens, including lawyers, are falling. In this regard, the role of fees for participation in cases by appointment for lawyers is increasing. Starting from 2020, the number of applications for joining this system is growing. As a result, at the moment there are significantly more lawyers participating in the LAJ than are requested. This causes dissatisfaction with lawyers due to a decrease in the number of calls. In the context of the keen interest of lawyers in this work, the Chamber gives an opportunity to participate in it only to lawyers who do not allow violations. The vast majority of disciplinary offenses that fall under the category excluded by the decision of the PASO Council in March of this year are situations when the lawyer accepted clearly more requirements than he was able to fulfill, guided by his own financial interests. For example, he accepted a demand for 10:00 in one court, knowing that at 14:00 he had a meeting on the other side of the city, and believing that he would be in time everywhere. But “something went wrong”: the meeting started later, the process dragged on, and the lawyer did not have time for the second meeting, disrupting it. In such a situation, the lawyer directly violates the requirements of the KPEA and the interests of colleagues who could accept this requirement, fulfill it and receive an appropriate remuneration without disrupting court hearings.

At the same time, in cases where the violation was only formal and did not cause real harm to the principal or the interests of the administration of justice, the Council widely uses the right to terminate disciplinary proceedings due to the insignificance of the misconduct. If the disciplinary offense was really significant and the lawyer is reprimanded, after six months he has the right to submit to the PASO Council an application for early removal of the disciplinary sanction and inclusion in the LA system. By leaving lawyers who commit violations in the system of subsidized legal aid, the Chamber violates the rights of conscientious colleagues, depriving them of demands that they are able to fulfill qualitatively and professionally.

At the end of the meeting, members of the Council congratulated the lawyers of Dyachenko A.I. and Karnomazov A.A., who shared the honorable third place in the All-Russian essay competition on the topic “20 years of the federal law on advocacy and advocacy in the Russian Federation: history and modernity”.

PASO Press Center