Nowadays, to protect the interests of the parties in the process, it is enough to present a diploma of higher legal education, and magistrates and district courts do not require it either. The absence of standards, ethical rules for representatives and mechanisms to monitor their activities, according to the federal agency, reduces the quality of their services and increases the risk of fraud.
Therefore, they want to reduce the circle of such people. According to the developers, the rights of citizens in court will be able to be defended by themselves (or their parents, guardians), lawyers and special entities, for example, state legal offices. The rights of legal entities are corporate lawyers, solicitors and, again, special entities, but also others, say, patent lawyers.
The text of the bill was supposed to be published by October 1, but work is still continuing, likely due to the heated controversy surrounding the document. This was confirmed by the All-Russian forum “Legal Week in the Urals”: its participants believe that the changes will affect a wide range of interests, so a balanced approach is very important.
– Is there enough for all lawyers, because, according to expert estimates, of the 300 thousand judicial representatives in the country, only 25 percent have that status? Will prices rise to take advantage of the situation? Will the reform change the nature of the legal profession, which is not a business activity, unlike private practice? Finally, what should lawyers do with holding companies that are part of a company’s staff but serve the group’s interests? – says Elena Artyukh, business ombudsman of Sverdlovsk.
The human rights activist advocates for the development of uniform standards and procedures for the provision of legal services
Although the Ministry of Justice uses the term “professionalization”, the meaning is the monopolization of judicial protection by lawyers.
– In criminal matters it already exists, but here I am against it. They just increased the judicial fee, why create additional social tension? It is better to follow the path of narrow specialization of representatives (tax law, intellectual law, territorial law, etc. – Ed.), believes Arkady Bryzgalin, director of the Center of Economic Experts.
– There are very voluminous disputes: tax, antitrust, where in-depth knowledge of the materials is required. Can a lone lawyer provide this work? I think not,” agrees Alevtina Beleshova, public tax representative of the Chelyabinsk Commissioner for the Protection of Entrepreneurs’ Rights. – Legal corporations are entire industries where project management has been introduced. Self-regulation is a good tool; allows you to monitor the quality of the service and remain in the market.
Lawyer Maxim Kolesnikov holds the opposite point of view. According to him, the creation of a single corporation of professional representatives will be beneficial. Calling this a limitation of the profession is not justified: today, can’t someone in criminal cases find a representative for any budget?
– 70 percent of the members of the chamber live at the expense of the state, providing free assistance in criminal cases, and only a third earn money from clients. We will only benefit from the fact that lawyers who are in private practice come to us. At the same time, the lawyer has high standards; cannot first protect the interests of the creditor, then those of the debtor, and in the third process – those of the debtor’s ex-wife, using the information obtained earlier, Kolesnikov emphasizes.
Compromise options are proposed by Stavropol business ombudsman Sergey Shishov and the head of the Ural law firm Arseny Artyukh. In particular, the human rights activist advocates the development of uniform standards and procedures for the provision of legal services, this will oblige him to give opinions in writing, not reveal information, prepare the client’s statements in court, etc. The businessman believes that it is better to make the transition to a lawyer’s monopoly smoothly, within 3-5 years or when new law school graduates enter the market and take exams to obtain the status. Then, over time, the composition of judicial representatives will change on its own.
