In Ukraine, there is a single, mandatory for all lawyers, typical form of a warrant – a document certifying the authority of a lawyer to provide legal assistance. As a general rule, warrants are generated on the NAAU website or at the regional bar council.
The form of warrants, as well as the uniform rules for the production, processing, storage, and accounting of warrants for all lawyers of Ukraine, bar associations and bureaus, are determined by the Regulation on the warrant for the provision of legal (legal) assistance, approved by the decision of the RAU dated April 12, 2019 No. 41 .
According to this Regulation, warrant forms are generated exclusively in the Personal Office of the lawyer on the NAAU website following the system commands. Accounting of the generated warrants is carried out automatically by the electronic database management system of the Unified Register of Advocates of Ukraine. The history of order generation is displayed in the corresponding section of the Personal Cabinet and in the administrative part of the electronic database of ЕРАУ. Lawyers, AO and AB initiate the generation of warrants through the NAAU website, in the regional bar council, or, as an exception, in the cases provided for by the RAU, directly at the NAAU.
Third-party resources that offer lawyers services to fill out a warrant under the pretext of lack of Internet access, reluctance to visit a personal office on the NAAU website, or for other imaginary reasons, actually violate the current legislation of Ukraine.
It can be assumed that such “services” are intended for persons whose right to practice as a lawyer has been suspended or terminated as part of disciplinary procedures. After all, persons who have been subject to appropriate disciplinary sanctions, since they cannot practice law, are deprived of the opportunity to generate warrants.
It must be taken into account that the generation of a warrant on third-party resources in violation of the established procedure contains as signs of a disciplinary offense (since non-compliance with the decisions of the self-governing bodies of the bar in accordance with Article 34 of the Law “On Advocacy and Advocacy” is a disciplinary offense). In addition, the provision of “services” for order generation, as well as their use by “clients”, contains signs of a crime, the responsibility for which is provided for in Art. 358 (Forgery of documents, seals, stamps and forms, sale or use of forged documents, seals, stamps) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.
It should also be understood that a proper and sufficient confirmation of the lawyer’s authority to act in the interests of the client is only a warrant generated in accordance with the Regulation approved by the RAU decision No. 41 dated 04/12/2019.
P. 12 The regulation contains a complete list of details that the warrant must contain. Some of them are generated automatically. Separate ones are filled out independently in order to preserve the lawyer’s secret. 15. The lawyer (the person who issued the warrant) is responsible for the authenticity of the data specified in the warrant.
The material was prepared by Bohdan Kushnir, head of the NAAU Committee on Advocacy Practice