Invisible lawyers

What do lawyers from small cities think about the situation in the legal field?

The Internet "Lawyer Street" has published the results of a study on the advocacy in small and medium-sized cities of Russia. The questionnaire was compiled by sociologist Ekaterina Khojaeva, which specialized on judicial and law enforcement themes, it interpreted the results, and the basis for the survey was data on the phone numbers that publishes (for the potential client) most regional lawyer chambers. 728 lawyers living in cities with a population of 300 thousand people were interviewed on them.

This is the “invisible Russia” whose agenda is usually interrupted by the federal, but where about half of the country lives.

And there is also crime, their property disputes, corruption, “power structures”, courts and lawyers.

How does this “small” (actually huge and very different) judicial field function function? Similar intra -decoration studies regarding judges and security forces, if they are carried out, they will not be shown to us, and we could hardly trust them. And the presented study allows the “capital's little things”, at least the edge of the eye to look at the inner “Terra Incognita”.

The age of lawyers here is expected to be shifted to the pension, the youth is critically few. When discussing the results of the study, the lawyers from the “outback” took part in it for the economic reasons: enterprises actually working at the district level, it is more convenient to register legal addresses in large cities, respectively, the courts of these cities swim, along with taxes, and economic disputes. As a result, most of the lawyer's “load” is criminal cases, including as intended (with payment from the budget), which is perceived not as an encumbrance, but as a bonus.

According to those who have not left the answer, the earnings of a novice lawyer in the small city are slightly less than the average, the earnings of the “matrone”, which are the majority here, above average, but only twice (in large cities a well -known lawyer with his clientele is significantly “richer”). When asked who in small cities and in the village their own services are available in price, lawyers answered on average that there are only 40 percent of the population.

For the majority, the lawyer “in the outback” is secondary employment - most often in addition to a pension for the length of service after working in law enforcement agencies (half of the respondents) or after starting work in the apparatus of courts, where they could not make a judicial career (almost every fifth).

In large cities, the share of those for whom the advocacy is “vocation” is significantly higher.

This speaks little about the quality of the services provided, but it is important to interpret answers to questions about how lawyers evaluate the work of courts and law enforcement agencies in the outback. These estimates contrast with how we are accustomed to perceive the state of legality from the point of view of the agenda of the “new”, “MK” or, as those who participated in the discussion, “lawyer Facebook” were expressed. Two of the five lawyers said that they had not encountered a violation of their rights (and, therefore, the rights of the clients), the majority reported only to formal and insignificant violations, and few gave a sharply negative assessment of the state of affairs in courts and law enforcement, while mainly indicating the police.

In my opinion, restrained assessments, along with the usual caution of respondents during surveys, are most likely explained by the fact that in small cities where all disputes are decided in a limited circle of pre -famous actors, lawyers are somehow built into this field, and that from the external level they are seen as a violation of human rights (for example, livestock in jail), from the inside is perceived as everyday life.

It is important, however, that the assessments of lawyers, apparently, coincide with the estimates of their customers and-wider-citizens of “invisible Russia”, where the opinion of lawyers has a significant impact. You should not wait for the people's rebellion against the “cops”, the human rights impulse at this level is weakened, human rights violations are not reflected, but are perceived as routine and inevitability.

However, this is already my own interpretation - other conclusions can be drawn from the study. Its full text can be found on the website of "Lawyer Street".