Legal news in Ukraine: new standards for free legal aid, changes in ProZorro, new wages for the judiciary staff, Ukraine in ECHR
New standards for providing free legal aid in civil and administrative processes came into force
The Ministry of Justice finally approved standards for providing free legal aid in civil and administrative proceedings, which came into force on December 27, 2017.
The document contains four sections that provide common standards for the quality of evaluation; separate standards for providing free legal aid at the stage of pre-trial settlement of a civil/administrative dispute; separate standards for the provision of free secondary legal aid during the trial; separate standards for the representation of subjects of the right to free secondary legal aid in criminal proceedings.
It is determined in general standards that a lawyer can’t provide free secondary legal aid at a time in more than 30 cases on orders. Not later than seven working days after the receipt of an assignment, the lawyer must conduct the first confidential appointment with the client, find out the circumstances of the case, obtain from him the information of legal significance, get acquainted with the documents available to the client and find out the result desired for the client. After examining the circumstances of the case, the lawyer must make sure that there are factual and legal grounds for executing the order and bring them to the client. If there are no legal grounds for executing the order, the lawyer must make a legal opinion.
In separate standards, the quality of legal assistance at the stage of pre-trial investigation provides for the collection of facts and information that can be used by a lawyer as evidence, filing a petition for the provision of evidence or a claim, filing a petition for renewal of time, deferment or postponement of judicial vitates, etc.
Separate standards for the provision of free secondary legal aid during the trial of civil and administrative cases include the familiarization with the case file, the preparation of a motion for postponement of the consideration of the case, filing counterclaims, participation in court sessions, participation in the study of evidence, etc.
Separate standards of representation in the criminal process determine that the lawyer participates in all procedural actions conducted with the participation of the client, clarifies the client the possibility of concluding a reconciliation agreement between the victim and the suspect or accused.
In the case of the representation of the injured party in criminal proceedings, the lawyer, in the presence of the actual and legal grounds, makes a civil action in criminal proceedings and, if necessary, takes part in procedural actions. The lawyer explains to the client that in the case of non-appearance of a civil claim in a criminal proceeding, as well as if the civil claim in a criminal proceeding is left without consideration, a person has the right to present him in civil proceeding.
If the appearance or condition of the client testifies to the use of violence, the lawyer (with the consent of the client) must take all measures to provide the client with ambulance, fix the bodily injuries, as well as other measures provided by the CCP.
Compliance with these standards is mandatory for lawyers in providing them with free secondary legal aid. For violating these Standards, attorneys meet in the amount established by law and the terms of a contract (agreement) with the center for providing free secondary legal aid.
The assessment of the quality of the provision by lawyers of free secondary legal aid is carried out in accordance with these Standards commission, formed for this purpose by councils of lawyers of regions, upon submission of the respective centers in accordance with the established procedure. The monitoring of the quality of the provision of free secondary legal aid by lawyers is provided by the Legal Aid Coordination Center and the regional centers.
New wages for the judiciary staff
Ukrainian government approved the wages for state employees, patronage service of courts, institutions of the justice system, which are applicable from January 1, 2018.
In the High Council of Justice, the High Qualifications Commission of Judges, the State Judicial Administration, the Constitutional Court, the Supreme Court, the higher specialized courts, the Head of Patronage Service now has a wage of 13 thousand UAH, its deputy - 12 500 UAH, a spokesperson, a referent - 7000 UAH, counselor of the head, deputy chairman; head of the inspection service, inspector, scientific advisor, scientific advisor - UAH 12,350, assistant to the chairman of the court, deputy head of the court, secretary of the chamber, secretary of the plenum, judge - UAH 12,350.
Assistant chiefs of appeal, district administrative and commercial courts, assistant judges, the цфпу is set at 9,600 hryvnias, and for assistants of local judges - 7,900 hryvnias.
At the same time, the salaries of employees of the patronage services of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine are set in the amounts provided for by the scheme for the relevant employees of the Supreme Court patronage services, with a coefficient of 1.25.
For state employees in the justice system, the government has established the following salary:
the head of the court, the secretariat in the Supreme Court and the high specialized courts will receive a salary of 18 thousand UAH, in the appellate, district administrative, economic courts - 12 400 UAH, in local - 10 thousand UAH;
the first deputy head of the apparatus and the secretariat in the Sun - 15 800 UAH;
deputy chief of staff and secretariat in the Supreme Court - 14 500 UAH, in appellate, district administrative, economic courts - 11 600 UAH, in local - 9 300 UAH;
scientific consultant in the Sun - 7 700 UAH, and the main consultant - 7 500 UAH; in appellate courts for the main advisers - 4 800 UAH, and at local - 4 100 UAH;
the secretary of the court and the secretary of the court in the Supreme Court - 6 000 and 5 500 UAH, respectively, in the appellate, district administrative, economic courts - 4 400 and 3 600 UAH, in local - 3 500 and 2 643 UAH;
At the same time, the wages of state employees of the secretariat of the High Council of Justice, the High Qualifications Commission of Judges of Ukraine, the Supreme Court's apparatus, the Supreme Court of Ukraine, the higher specialized courts increase by 25 percent, and the wages of state employees of appellate and local courts, which directly perform functions for providing cyber security, cyber defense and security of information technologies - by 20 percent.
Ukraine remains one of the leaders in the number of complaints to the ECHR
Ukraine ranked fourth in the number of cases before the European Court of Human Rights. As of January 1, 2018, there are 7112 complaints from Ukrainians regarding ECHR.
Romania ranked first with 9,920 complaints, Russia ranked second (7747) and Turkey (7518) ranked third.
Speaking at the annual press conference of the European Court of Human Rights on 25 January 2018, President Guido Raimondi took stock of the year 2017 and reported an increase in the number of incoming applications, mainly as a result of new cases brought against Turkey. However, while there had been some 80,000 applications pending before the Court at the end of 2016, this figure had fallen to approximately 56,000 by the end of 2017, a decrease of 17%. The considerable reduction in the volume of cases was accounted for by the large number of applications declared inadmissible for failure to exhaust domestic remedies. In the case of Burmych and Others v. Ukraine the Court had found that the systemic problem raised was to be treated as part of the execution procedure for the Ivanov v. Ukraine pilot judgment. It had therefore decided to strike out more than 12,000 pending cases, transmitting them to the Committee of Ministers. President Raimondi highlighted the importance of the subsidiarity principle, which placed States at the forefront of protecting the rights and freedoms guaranteed by the European Convention on Human Rights. This
made it absolutely essential for applicants to avail themselves of an effective remedy before bringing their case to Strasbourg, and for States to eliminate structural problems, including by setting up such remedies.
By the end of 2017 the number of pending cases stood at 56,250, down 29% compared to the end of 2016 (when there were 79,750 applications pending).
At the same time, as the Commissioner for Human Rights, Valerii Lutkovska, stated earlier, to resolve the systemic problem of non-enforcement of judgments of courts in Ukraine in which the respondent is a state or a state body, first of all, is political will.
At the same time, there are 4226 individual complaints under consideration by the ECtHR, apparently related to events in the Crimea or combat operations in the East of Ukraine. Of these, 257 were filed against Russia, 2997 against Ukraine, and 908 against Ukraine and Russia at the same time.
Changes to the Law "On Public Procurement" came into force
On January 27, the Law of Ukraine on Amendments to the Law of Ukraine "On Public Procurement" and some other Laws of Ukraine on Procurement Monitoring came into force. This is reported by the official Internet representation of the head of state.
The law allows public financial control bodies to monitor their purchases effectively in order to prevent violations in this area and to ensure that customers comply with legislation at all stages of procurement. The law will help prevent public money losses by strengthening control over public procurement, as well as creating conditions for overcoming corruption in this area.
The President noted that the amendments he signed to the Law on Public Procurement, implemented automatic risk management in procurement. "On-line system of risk indicators will work, which will signal to the supervising body that something wrong with this participant. This innovation is addressed, first of all, to those who have learned or are learning to fool ProZorro. The algorithms will tell you where to look, how to count those who want to get around the system at the earliest stages,” said Petro Poroshenko.
The rating of candidates for a constitutional judge according to the President's quota is determined
The competition commission for the election of judges of the Constitutional Court under the President of Ukraine has identified the applicants for the employment of judges.
Based on the results of studying the documents and information provided by the candidates, the results of the special examination and the interview, the competition committee decided to recommend six candidates for the position of a judge of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine.
The first in the rating is Sergei Holovaty, who is a member of the Venice Commission and at one time was an advisor to the Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada on constitutional issues.
The following is on the list: Head of the Department of Theory and History of State and Law of the Faculty of Law of Uzhhorod National University Vasyl Lemak, Head of the Department of General Theoretical Law, Constitutional and Administrative Law of the National Law University "Odessa Law Academy" Anzhelika Krusyan, Professor of the Department of State Construction of the National Law University. Yaroslav the Wise, Pavlo Lyubchenko, Chief Advisor of the Department for Constitutional Reform of the Main Department of Legal Policy of the Presidential Administration of Ukraine Serhiy Chekhovich and Professor of the Department of Theory and Philosophy of Law, Lviv National University. I. Franko Oksana Hryshchuk.
Among the six candidates, the President will elect two and sign a decree appointing two judges of the Constitutional Court.
Six judges were released for disciplinary offenses
The High Council of Justice has dismissed six judges for committing significant disciplinary offenses.
On the basis of clause 3 of the sixth paragraph of Article 126 of the Constitution of Ukraine, Olga Mozgova was dismissed from the post of judge of Zolotonsky city court of Cherkassy region, Mykola Rezhetnik - from the position of judge of Babushkin district court of Dnipropetrovsk, Lyubov Bessarab - from the post of judge of the Gagarin district court of Sevastopol, Oleksandr Poppek - from the position of judge Telmanivsky district court of Donetsk region, Natalia Antonova - from the position of judge of Holosiivsky district court of Kyiv city and Oksana Stepanova - from position of judge of Obukhiv district court of the Kiev region.
Disciplinary proceedings against judges Mozgova, Reshetnika, Antonova were instituted on the basis of complaints stating that these judges had violated the rights guaranteed by the Constitution of Ukraine and the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, the right to liberty and security of person and the right to a fair trial, in particular in deciding on the use of a preventive measure in the form of detention in relation to persons who participated in mass protests.
The disciplinary case against Stepanova was instituted on the basis of a complaint, in which it was stated that the judge had not complied with the requirements for comprehensive, complete and objective clarification of the circumstances of the case and their decision in accordance with the law when making a decision on the application to an active participant in the movement "Avtoomaydan "Administrative penalty in the form of deprivation of the right to drive vehicles for six months, which is the maximum amount of punishment under this article of the Code of Ukraine on Administrative Offenses.
Regarding the judges Bessarab and Popeka, disciplinary cases were opened on the basis of established facts that the said judges, who, in accordance with applicable law, had a judge's position in Ukraine, were included in the judicial bodies of the Russian Federation and the so-called DNR, respectively.
