ON MAY 25, A DISCUSSION ON “ETHICAL RULES OF LAWYERS” WAS HELD WITH THE PARTICIPATION OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE REGIONAL COUNCILS FOR JUSTICE REFORM(RJRC).
IN THE FORM OF PANEL DISCUSSIONS, JUDGES, LAWYERS, PROSECUTORS, PRIVATE ENFORCEMENT OFFICERS, INSOLVENCY OFFICERS, NOTARIES AND ACADEMICS HAD THE OPPORTUNITY TO DISCUSS THE ETHICAL STANDARDS OF EACH PROFESSION. The event was moderated by Roman Chumak, coordinator of the Kharkiv RRRP, attorney, managing partner of the Ares law firm, and Alina Serheyeva, expert of the EU Project “Pravo Justice”. “All of you communicate with each other within the framework of your professional activities. And our goal is to strengthen this interaction, make it more efficient and professional,” emphasized Oksana Tsymbrivska, Chief National Expert of the EU Pravo-Justice Project, in her opening remarks .
Answering the question whether it is ethical to comment on court decisions, Halyna Dibrova, judge of the Southwestern Economic Court of Appeal, member of the Council of Justice, expressed the opinion that this should be done by the court ‘s press secretaries: “To comment on a court decision, answer questions, give an assessment, you need independence and impartiality.” Victoria Cheban, judge of Shevchenkivskyi District Court of Chernivtsi
Chernivtsi, member of the RCC spoke about the draft amendments to the Code of Judicial Ethics.
In particular, it is proposed to prohibit judges from commenting in the media and on the Internet on cases that have been or are being considered by this court or are within the jurisdiction of this court.
At the same time, these rules will not apply to public statements made by court presidents and judges-speakers in connection with the performance of their duties, explanations of court procedures, scientific presentations, other events within the framework of educational activities or interpretation of current legislation or proposals for its future changes. “Establishing communication activities is necessary to increase trust in the judiciary,” emphasized Victoria Cheban.
According to Olena Fonova, judge-speaker of the Economic Court of Luhansk Oblast, coordinator of the Donbas RRRP, stories about exemplary court cases are interesting for social media audiences, are perceived favorably and increase trust in the judiciary as a place where justice can be found and violated rights restored.
“At the same time, we need to understand that the limit of a judge’s statements is where the damage to the authority of the judiciary begins,“ emphasized Olena Fonova.
“It is important for the court to communicate with the public, because the public should know the motives for making a decision. If there is no such communication, the public will always comment on such court decisions,” noted Roman Chumak.
Liudmyla Volkova, attorney at law, counsel at AVELLUM law firm, drew attention to the uneven treatment of different legal professions in terms of disclosure of information on disciplinary action for non-compliance with ethics standards: “Since we are talking about unified ethical standards, we must also talk about unified approaches to the openness of disciplinary procedures.”
Sergiy Donkov, Insolvency Practitioner, National Expert of the EU Project “Pravo-Justice”, emphasized that the professional ethics of insolvency practitioners is developing slowly due to the legislative limitations of professional self-regulation of insolvency practitioners: “The community of insolvency practitioners, when creating a self-regulatory organization, was not given the functions and powers of self-regulation of its profession, such as full control over the activities of insolvency practitioners, control over professional development, and qualification examination procedures.”
In addition, the panelists agreed that it is necessary to avoid non-work relationships between the parties to the pending litigation, as this may raise suspicions of bias.
“The behavior of a judge, even outside of working hours, should be such that an average citizen has no doubt about the judge’s impartiality during the trial,” said Olena Fonova. Marta Mochulska, PhD, Deputy Dean of the Law Faculty of the Ivan Franko National University of Lviv, coordinator of the Lviv RRRPemphasized the importance of laying the foundations of legal ethics during university studies: “Effective application of ethical rules in legal practice depends on understanding the importance of ethics, knowledge of the very essence of ethical rules and the practice of their application. Therefore, it is very important to form this understanding in a young lawyer, starting from the student stage.” According to Valerii Prytuliak, private enforcement officer, coordinator of Odesa RRRP, member of the UBA Ethics CommitteeNational and international experts of the EU Project “Pravo Justice” joined the development of the new version of the Code of Ethics for Private Enforcement Officers, which made it possible to bring the document closer to European practice.
In particular, it provides for the territoriality rule, which prohibits the acceptance of enforcement documents outside the territory of the authority, requirements for dissemination of information about professional activities, and the delivery of a copy of the Code to each executor. “We can talk endlessly about the norms of professional ethics. But until we hand over this document to the executor, we cannot demand its implementation,” said Valeriy Prytulyak. Following the discussion, all participants concluded that unified standards of ethical behavior should be developed for all legal professions. For reference:The Regional Justice Reform Councils (RJCs) were established with the support of the EU Project “Pravo-Justice” and operate in Chernivtsi, Dnipro, Kharkiv, Lviv, Odesa regions and Donbas. To date, members of the Councils have been actively involved in the preparation of a draft law on mediation, amendments to the Bankruptcy Code, proposals to improve legislation on enforcement proceedings, the introduction of an electronic court, and discussions on the concept of transitional justice. The RECs act as permanent working groups that promote the implementation of reforms in accordance with the bottom-up principle: by bringing region-specific challenges and their potential solutions to the level of central authorities.