The bill to amend and supplement the Law on Advocacy is opportune, but should be yet improved. Though the provisions of this bill are better than those of the current law, the adoption of the draft law in this variant can negatively affect the rights of lawyers and of people who use the services of lawyers, consider experts of the Center for the Analysis and Prevention of Corruption (CAPC) who appraised the bill.
In a news conference at IPN, CAPC expert Mariana Kalughin said the bill does not contain an analysis of the compatibility of the bill with the international standards in the regulated area. The bill lacks economic-financial substantiation, but its implementation implies costs. The costs associated with the implementation of the law should be covered by the state or the bill should clearly stipulate who will cover these costs.
The expert noted that the bill does not seem to promote group or individual interests that would be uncorrelated or contrary to the general public interest. However, the subsequent implementation of some of the provisions of the bill could negatively affect the interests of beneficiaries of legal aid services provided by lawyers and lawyers’ interests.
Mariana Kalughin said the bill gives the Ministry of Justice particular powers that generated objections. The Ministry is authorized to keep the State Register of lawyers and forms of organizing the activity of lawyer. These norms do not appropriately regulate the access to information from the Register and do not stipulate the public character of this information. This can affect the rights of those who use legal assistance services provided by lawyers.
According to the CAPC experts, the bill also does not clearly define the powers of the self-administration bodies of lawyers, the way of organizing and running these. It is also important to add clear provisions about the mandate of the bodies of the Union of Lawyers, obtained before the application of the new provisions.
The appraisal was carried out within the project “Vulnerability appraisal of draft normative and legislative documents” that is financially supported by the MATRA Rule of Law and Good Governance Program of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
