March 16, 2012, 11:08 Society

Lawyers claim for poverty

On Friday, lawyers from the Perm Territory and the Udmurt Republic did not go to work, protesting against low pay.

About two thousand lawyers went on strike in Perm and Udmurtia. Lawyers did not show up for work and are demanding wage indexation: for one day of work they receive 300 rubles.

On Friday, lawyers in the Perm region and Udmurtia went on strike to protest low wages for state-appointed defense lawyers. This was announced by the President of the Bar Chamber of the Perm Region, Anatoly Grigoriev. “The action is that the lawyers appointed as public defenders did not go to court,” Grigoriev told Gazeta.Ru.

One of the members of the chamber, lawyer Alexey Ketov, explained that this is a one-day warning action.

“The state has provided citizens with the right to defense in court, regardless of their financial capabilities,” Ketov explained to Gazeta.Ru. — That is, any citizen will receive a lawyer. The defense attorney will be forced to put aside his case and take on a new trial, but he receives very little money for this work.” According to the lawyer, the rate of a defense attorney appointed by law enforcement agencies is equal to the minimum wage.

For one day of work for the state, lawyers received about 300 rubles.

“Not in every court you can have lunch with this money,” says Ketov.

In accordance with the federal decree, it was assumed that this amount would be indexed, but four years later, lawyers still receive 300 rubles a day from the state. “The amount of payment does not correspond to the tasks assigned to the defense lawyer in legal proceedings,” the lawyer said. According to him, participation in the defense of citizens free of charge or on assignment is the duty of every lawyer. “This is the duty of lawyer ethics: our profession obliges us to protect people,” says Ketov.

The lawyer explained that the practice of paying the defense lawyer for the work of the state was introduced not so long ago. Before the decision was adopted in 2008, the lawyer participating in the process as a public defender filed an application with the court - the court provided him with a writ of execution, a financial reporting document, according to which the client was paid with the defender.

As part of the preventive action, Perm lawyers drew up a resolution demanding the implementation of Resolution No. 625 “On Amendments to the Resolutions of the Government of the Russian Federation of July 4, 2003,” according to which wages should be indexed.

The resolution will be sent to the Government of the Russian Federation, the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation , the Ministry of Finance and other structures.

Public defenders in the Perm region are supported by their colleagues in Udmurtia. Assistant to the President of the Bar Chamber of the Udmurt Republic Galina Bagasamyan told Gazeta.Ru that almost all the lawyers of the republic, namely about 600 people, are participating in the action. According to Bagasamyan, if the state does not respond to the demands of public defenders, other, longer actions may be held. “However, even a one-day protest is a problem for law enforcement and judicial authorities, not to mention two or three days of protests,” Bagasamyan said.

In Moscow, there is no problem with paying defense lawyers, because, as lawyer Vladimir Zherebenkov explained , there are practically no “state” lawyers in the city.

“Government” lawyers began to be created by officials, and they have no clientele,” says Zherebenkov. He does not deny that in the capital, as well as in other cities of Russia, defenders are needed for disadvantaged groups of the population, but this issue is being resolved differently. Bar associations are being created in Moscow, whose members pay monthly fees to the association fund. This money supports the board itself, and also pays salaries to employees who defend people in courts for free. “By law, we are obliged to provide assistance to everyone. If a client comes to me, I will provide him with a lawyer, and the board will pay for his work,” Zherebenkov said.

According to the lawyer, the creation of “state” lawyers was a “populist measure in the election campaign.” “The measure was carried out, but no one thought about payment,” Zherebenkov said.