Round tables

 PRESS REPORT

On the research of Albanian Helsinki Committee about the free and the appointed bar service in criminal cases

27.05.2004

This research aimed at the acquaintance with the problems of law and the practice of defense through lawyers in cases when the person declares that he can not afford to pay for the defense lawyer as well as in the cases of judgments in his absence.

Throughout the research the polling method was used with arrested people, condemned people, prosecutors, judges and defense lawyers. There were interviewed 60 defense lawyers, 350 arrested and convicted people as well as 47 prosecutors and judges at the Prosecutor’s Office in Tirana, judges of the judicial district of Tirana, pre-detainees from the Pre-Detention Institution 313, condemned people from the prison 302,325 and Vaqarr prison as well as defense lawyers exercising their activity in Tirana.

After the analytical study of the answers the following conclusions were drawn out:

1. Information of the arrested and detained people about the right of defense is less than satisfactory (only 50.9% of the interviewees were informed about this right). The judges and the prosecutors do not share the same opinion because they stated that they always notify the person about this right (94% of them).

2. People who asked for free defense service were mainly juveniles (76.6%), violated women and women having a low economic standard 14.9%.

3.  As regards abiding to the defense lawyers’ list, 17% of the interviewed prosecutors and judges replied that it was respected, 48.9% of them thought that it was not always respected, 27.7% thought it was never respected.
Often they turned to the defense lawyer that shows up himself, the defense lawyer nominated by the prosecutor’s office, or the defense lawyers of the prosecutor’s office. The defense lawyers themselves think that they are not always selected from the list (57 %). The rest were selected according to the prosecutors or judges’ preferences or are defense lawyers from the prosecutor’s office.

4. According to the convicted and the arrested people the relationship of the defense lawyers with them is not regarded as a regular one. (54.7%). Only 40% of then confirmed that the defense lawyer has regularly attended the process and 16% have asked for the substitution of their defense lawyer due to non-regular attendance of the process.

5.  Related to the observance of the code of conduct, only  21.3% of the arrested and condemned interviewed people confirmed that their defense lawyers have  applied the ethical rules.

6. The arrested and the convicted interviewed people were not satisfied with the quality of their defense. Only 30% affirmed that their defense was good. The lawyers themselves (1/3 of them) stated that the professional code of conduct is rarely observed.

7. The selected defense lawyer has not always been welcomed by his client. In more than 50% of the cases the lawyer has attended the case to the completion whereas in 20% of the cases the lawyer has resigned because the person has preferred another defense lawyer.

8. The defense lawyers themselves think that the level of the bar service is to a certain extent professional (66.7%) and in some cases not at all professional (5. 5%).

9. According to the defense lawyers, the low professional level is explained with the low payments and the lack of contacts with the person, a better interest about the better paid cases, and the lack of experience of the lawyer.

10. Despite the role of the bar clinics, 13% of the interviewed judges and prosecutors stated that they always turn to them whereas 55.3% had never turned to them.
According to the judges and the prosecutors 44.7% of the appointed defense lawyers adhere to the lawyer professional code of conduct 48.9% stated that they did not always adhere to it and 4.3% stated that they never adhered to it. Moreover (61.7%) share the opinion that the clients due to the lack of their professionalism and the contumacy have sought for the substitution of the defense lawyer, 27.7% denied the request for substitution.

11. The interviewed judges and prosecutors declared that 51.1% of the free defense lawyers attend the judicial hearings regularly, 38.3% not regularly and 8.5% never regularly, 2.1% did not respond.

12. As for the professional level of the free defense service, 10.6% are of the opinion that it is a professional service, 53.2% not always professional, 25.5% slightly professional, 6.4% not at all professional and 4.3% gave no reply.

13. The judges and prosecutors (95.7%) consider that the free bar service needs improvement in such directions as: the better arrangement of the bar service (51.1%), clear liabilities about the bar service (59.6%), changing the criteria of their selection 19.1%), better payments and rates (17%).

These data were made public in a round table organized by AHC, on the date 27.05.2004, where high representatives of the Ministry of Justice, Courts of different levels, representatives of the steering board of the National Bar Chamber and the Bar Chamber in Tirana, from the Prosecutor’s Office, defense lawyers, representatives of the civil society, foreign and local well known experts in this field.

In the end of the round table some conclusions were reached:

1. Bar services has considerably improved, but is less that satisfactory.
2. Free and intended defense is not in all the cases professional.

The improvement of the state-appointed bar service, seeks not only the improvement of their payment but better selection and monitoring criteria and the punishment of the abusive cases on the part of the defense lawyers.