The Federation Council discussed plans for the transition to a lawyer monopoly
The Ministry of Justice prepared his proposals to introduce the so -called lawyer monopoly in Russia, in the framework of which only persons who have the status of a lawyer will receive the right to represent the right to represent the parties in court. As the representative of the Ministry of the Ministry of Anton Benov explained on a round table in the Federation Council on April 21, the reform will precede a “long and comfortable transition period”, during which a sufficient number of lawyers will be able to acquire the necessary status.
The lawyer monopoly assumes that only persons with the status of a lawyer have the right to defend the interests of citizens and organizations in courts (to receive it, you need to pass a special exam), and not any lawyers. Now in Russia such a monopoly is enshrined only in criminal proceedings.
The proposals for the consolidation of professional judicial representatives on the advocacy platform in the Ministry of Justice have already been prepared, it remains only to wait for the official order of the government in order to put them for public discussion, the deputy director of the Department of Development and Regulation of the Legal Assistance and Legal Services of the Ministry of Justice Anton Benov said at a round table in the Council of People’s Commissars. According to him, the ministry is also working on the “introduction of a long and comfortable transition period”: restrictions on representation in court for persons who do not have a lawyer status will be introduced in stages. The exception will be made for lawyers representing their employer (the so-called Inhaus Jourists, as well as employees of legal departments of state and municipal bodies).
Nobody disputes the need to introduce a lawyer monopoly, Mr. Benov emphasized, and most of the issues are reduced to the peculiarities of taxation and the organization of the work of the advocacy in the new conditions.
But the introduction of a monopoly in itself “does not limit the development of the institute”, that is, the reform is possible before new forms of lawyer formations are developed and introduced, and the official made it clear. And in the advocacy, he said, they are already working to ensure a fairly comfortable “entrance to the profession”.
The President of the Federal Chamber of Lawyers (FPA) Svetlana Volodina confirmed the readiness for reform and at the same time hastened to dispel the most common fears that exist in connection with the expected introduction of a monopoly. Thus, representatives of state bodies are most concerned about the possible increase in the cost of legal services, but from the experience of different countries this should not happen, Ms. Volodina assured. Moreover, the transition period is expected to take two years, and during this time a sufficient number of lawyers will be able to get the necessary status.
The fears of the business, according to the head of the FPA, are more often associated with corruption when passing the exam for a lawyer.
Audio and video protocoling will help to exclude it, and an additional guarantee of objectivity will be the possibility of appeal on the decision of the qualification board. The “contribution of the first year” will become one for the whole country and will not be of a barrage nature, Svetlana Volodina promised (now “entrance” payments of lawyers to the lawyer chambers may exceed half a million rubles). In addition, if there is a three -year representative office in the courts, lawyers will be able to create their own lawying education, and not enter into the existing one, she added.
In turn, the managing partner of Pepelyaev Group Sergei Pepelyaev called for the most to accelerate the reform and complete it before foreign lawyers who had once built a “colonial model” of the legal business in Russia begin to return to the country. To its share of foreigners in consulting was 80%, he recalled: in 2022, almost all of them left Russia, but at any time they can return, and this will lead to a second “colonization” of the legal market. The Russian sovereign economy needs a sovereign legal infrastructure, Mr. Pepelyaev is sure, and this problem should be solved by combining lawyers practicing Russian law in one organization. But this must be done before the end of this year, otherwise, instead of Western consulting companies, the domestic, including Chinese, the lawyer summed up.
