Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych has signed a law on the bar and lawyers' activities, an adviser to the president and the head of the main department for the judiciary, Andriy Portnov, has said.
“In order to ensure each person’s right to legal assistance, the possible provision of legal assistance by a lawyer at public expense is envisaged, which, in combination with the Criminal Procedure Code and the law on free legal assistance that have already been adopted on the president’s initiative, will serve as a proper legislative framework to protect the rights and interests of citizens,” he said at a briefing in Kyiv on Thursday.
Portnov also said that the law envisages the strengthening of the role of a lawyer’s request. In particular, administrative liability and financial sanctions are introduced for the failure to provide data on a lawyer’s request.
As reported, the Verkhovna Rada adopted the law on the bar and lawyer’s activity on July 5. The law states that lawyers’ activities are to be carried out under the principles of the rule of law, legality, independence and privacy, and to avoid conflicts of interest.
According to the law, an individual that has a full higher judicial education, who speaks the state language, and who has at least two years of experience in the field of law can be a lawyer, as can a person who has passed a qualification exam and undergone a probation period, taken an oath and received a diploma for lawyer’s activity.
The law bans from becoming lawyers people with previous convictions, people recognized by the courts as incapable or with disabilities, those dismissed from the post of judges, prosecutors, investigators, notary officers, as well as civil servants and local government officials who violated their oath or committed corrupt actions.
Yanukovych introduced a bill on the bar and lawyers’ activities for consideration by parliament. Portnov said earlier that the bill foresees the equality of the lawyer with other participants of the criminal process – the lawyer has a right to ask for, retain and withdraw evidence, documents, copies of evidence, and study evidence and interrogate people by their agreement.
The law will come into force after its publication.
There are 33,000 lawyers in Ukraine.
