Filenews 19 October 2021 - by Michalis Chatzivasilis
Disciplinary cases against lawyers are increasing, and recently a decision has been taken to make them public without names except in the case of deletion. At the same time, the big challenge for the president of lawyers remains the reform of the Judiciary.
According to data cited yesterday during the presentation of the work of the first year since the new Board of Directors of the Cyprus Bar Association took office, 139 complaints were filed against lawyers (22 in 2020 and 116 this year).
Disciplinary Board member Alexia Kountouri said that when the new Disciplinary Board took over, there were 630 cases pending, from 2008 to 2020. The disciplinary board's teams have had the opportunity to deal with a total of 274 old cases to date. Of these, 106 cases were decided. In the 6 cases final decisions are pending, in the 4 cases an interim decision was reserved, 14 cases were withdrawn and the remaining (135) are in the process of being examined. Regarding the new cases registered, from 5/11/2020 when the new Disciplinary Board took office until the end of 2020, 22 cases were registered. For the year 2021, until 13/10/2021, 116 cases had been registered. Of these 138 cases in total, 8 were dealt with. In the 3 cases a judgment was issued, 2 cases were withdrawn and 5 cases are currently being dealt with.
According to Mrs. Kountouri, the amendment of the Law on Lawyers is being studied in order to deal with cases where an indictment for serious criminal offences is registered against a lawyer and an opinion was requested on the issue of the constitutionality of the intended amendment, so that these cases can be examined by the Disciplinary Board. It was also decided that notable decisions of the Disciplinary Board are made public. After consultation with the Commissioner for the Protection of Personal Data, the publication will be accompanied by anonymization, with the exception of cases of suspension of the license to practice the profession of lawyers and deletion from the register of lawyers.
According to the president of the lawyers, Christos Clerides, efforts are being made to strengthen the institution of mediation and arbitration with the aim of making Cyprus a centre of arbitration in the wider region. Also, one of the primary objectives of the GPP Council, said Mr. Clerides, was and remains the upgrading of the lawyer as a justice officer, a key pillar in the rule of law as well as the legal profession.
The president of the GPP also referred to the efforts to reform the Judiciary, stressing that "justice that is slow is not justice and our Justice has suffered a serious blow". During the presentation of the work of the Cyprus Bar Association, a memorandum of cooperation was signed with the Commissioner for Legislation.
