Social legal aid will be introduced in Kazakhstan
Since 2020, it is planned to introduce insurance payment to customers in the event of an unintentional commission of professional errors by a lawyer or legal adviser
Today a conference on the topic "The future is coming: legislative regulation of the activities of legal advisers - a new reality from 2018". The event was organized by the Republican Public Association "The Bar of Commercial Lawyers Kazakhstan Bar Association (KazBar) was held in Almaty.
The conference was attended by representatives of the Ministry of Justice, NCE RK "Atameken", members of KazBar, as well as lawyers of legal and audit companies.
The draft law "On advocacy and legal assistance" was developed by the Ministry of Justice in the framework of the implementation of the Concept of Legal Policy, instructions and data at the meeting of the Council on Legal Policy under the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan on 8th of February this year. The participants frankly and constructively discussed the draft law on advocacy and legal assistance and related changes in other laws regarding the regulation of the activities of legal advisers.
"We wanted to get together to talk openly about how we will work under the new legislation. The new law is in the Mazhilis, it is at the final stage of discussion. We hope that we will have another opportunity to make changes. In any case, we understand where it all goes. Our activity was not regulated in the past. There are different opinions. Some believe that we do not need to be regulated at all. But we KazBar believe that regulation should be, as in the developed countries of the world. We work with foreign clients who bring their own rules and requirements to us, we are forced to meet these demands", - said Aigul Kenzhebayeva.
Aizhan Bizhanova, Director of the Department of Legislation and Development of Self-Regulation presented NCE RK "Atameken".
"The draft law is aimed at strengthening the protection of rights, freedoms and legitimate interests of citizens in the exercise of their constitutional right to receive qualified legal assistance, as well as improving the mechanisms for its provision. The draft law provides for the regulation of the activities of private practitioners (legal advisors), through their association in self-regulating organizations, as well as the development of a recommendatory tariff scale for the payment of assistance of an attorney, legal adviser, professional liability insurance will be mandatory for lawyers and legal advisors", - explained Aizhan Bizhanova.
According to Bizhanova, insurance payment will be made to clients in case of unintentional making by a lawyer or legal adviser such professional mistakes as missed procedural deadlines, incorrect execution of documents, not informing the client about the consequences of legal actions, which caused damage to it, loss or damage of client documents, unlawful disclosure of information. Its introduction is expected from 2020.
"And it is also proposed to simplify the entrance to the profession in the draft lawl. Today, the number of acting lawyers in Kazakhstan is more than four and a half thousand. Consequently, one lawyer for about 4,000 citizens in Kazakhstan. In Western European countries, 1 lawyer provides legal aid to 250 to 1,000 people. Today, not many professionals can become lawyers because of unreasonably high entrance fees, which vary up to 800,000 tenge", - the director of the department said.
As well as the experience of the United States, Britain, Australia, France, the Netherlands, legal aid is provided on the basis of pro bono, which in the Draft Law is called complex social legal aid. The introduction of pro bono in Kazakhstan will allow citizens in difficult social and financial situations to obtain legal assistance from a lawyer or legal adviser with full support of his legal situation, which corresponds to the best world practice.
"In general, the adoption of the draft law will ensure the provision of affordable and high-quality legal assistance to the population of highly qualified specialists", - summed up Aizhan Bizhanova.
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