Issue: № 7/1, 2021
Doi: https://doi.org/10.37634/efp.2021.7(1).2
The paper raises the issue of waiver (replacement) of a state defense lawyer by a suspect (accused) who provides free legal aid in criminal proceedings. The author analyzes the provisions of the current legislation in Ukraine, which regulates the provision (replacement) of a lawyer, compares and analyzes the practice of courts in the application of the law, focuses on the issue of determining the criteria for the quality of services provided by a lawyer, studies the view on this problem through the decisions of the ECHR (European Court of Human Rights), and also suggests ways to solve this problem by amending the current legislation and presents a fundamentally new approach to the procedure of waiver (replacement) of a lawyer in criminal proceedings. In the paper, the author notes the problem in the legislative definition of the possibility of waiver (replacement) of the lawyer and, as a result, the uneven application of the law occurs in practice by the courts; it is proposed to amend the specific procedural rules that regulate these relations, namely, to detach the issue of waiver (replacement) of the lawyer into a separate process, the author justifies the need for such detachment and decision-making by the investigating judge. The author notes that the issue of refusal (replacement) of a lawyer during a pre-trial investigation with a legally defined adversarial proceeding is decided by the prosecution-the investigator (prosecutor), which is in itself wrong and can affect the choice of a lawyer, his tactics and methods of defense. The proposed changes, in the author's opinion, solve the problem of inconsistency in the application of the law in terms of waiver (replacement) of a defense lawyer by a suspect (accused), determine the unity of approach in solving these issues, preserving the defendant's right to choose freely a lawyer and protecting him from disclosing the chosen line of defense to the prosecution.
Keywords : free secondary legal aid, free secondary legal aid centers, Institute of the advocacy, lawyer, legal aid, advocacy
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