Lawyers about Reinforcement of Lawyer’s Institute

Shorena Kakabadze, Kutaisi

“Civil protection can be guaranteed by strong lawyer’s institute in the country. The lawyer shall be protected to properly defend interests of his/her client,” it was pathos of the November 21 meeting between Zaza Khatiashvili, chairman of the Georgian Bar Association and Kutaisi acting lawyers in Kutaisi.

They spoke about problems which created serious obstacles for lawyers when implementing their activities for the last years.

“It will not be exaggeration if I state that we worked in fascist environment. It is time to move to a new regime and lawyers shall be able to implement their activities in normal environment. Saakashvili’s authority arrested 147 lawyers in Georgia for having properly protected their clients. Lawyers were degraded in different forms. Lawyer’s institute shall be reinforced to enable them to restitute their rights,” said Zaza Khatiashvili.

Lawyers have frequently complained about their restricted rights for the last time. They think judiciary system, where lawyer plays key role, does not meet requirements of democratic society. Human Rights Center and humanrights.ge prepared many researches and articles on this issue.

Evgeni Oniani, lawyer: “Lawyer shall be invulnerable when implementing his/her duties in order to successfully protect client and professionally implement his duties. However, we had not had this chance for the last years. There were cases when judge created serious problems for a lawyer even for a smile. I do not exaggerate, similar facts really occurred. Serious work shall be implemented in this direction. We should not forget: in order to enable a lawyer to protect client’s rights, his/her rights shall be protected first of all.”

Evgeni Oniani said lawyers frequently complained about hard conditions in various penitentiary establishments of the country; they spoke about facts of breaching prisoners’ honor and dignity but in vain. “Our statements were never responded. Relevant institutions never took measures to eradicate those problems. Lawyers could not properly defend their clients because of unfair judiciary system.”

Lawyer Ana Chapidze recalled many examples when her activities were hindered: “I will tell you an example of Khoni prison. I wanted to visit my client at the facility but could not see him despite many efforts. They did not allow me into the building and did not say the reason either. I immediately called the hotline of the Ministry of Justice where I was told – prison director had gone on business and I had to wait for him. Prison administration representatives told me: we do not know when he would return and they could not allow us into the facility without his permission. Of course, they did not give me the phone number of the director. I personally found his number and called him. He said he was at dentist and was going to another doctor afterwards; he could not tell me exact time when he would arrive at prison. His answer was not serious meaning: do not wait for me; next time, call me in advance. I cannot understand why a lawyer should agree his/her visit to client with the director.”

Members of Georgian Bar Association with 3 900 lawyers in it agree that law shall be revised in order to better protect lawyer’s rights.

“The lawyer shall be searched only based on the permission of the chairman of the Bar Association. We have already declared our initiatives with the new government. We spoke about state-funded advocacy which should be joined with the Bar Association too because otherwise a lawyer cannot be independent,” chairman of the Bar Association said.

Zaza Khatiashvili spoke about restricted rights of state-funded lawyers. He said “they actually acted as assistants to prosecutors,” who usually implemented their orders. He underscored the necessity to cancel its subordination to the authority.