The European Public Prosecutor’s Office, affected by the legal vacuum that leaves small companies without a public defender

by time news

2023-04-27 07:20:34

He gap in the Free Legal Aid Law with respect to legal persons, do not provide remuneration some for the lawyers called to represent the small businesses involved in legal proceedings and that they cannot afford their defense, has been making itself felt for some time in some macrocausas that are instructed in the National Court.

One of these cases is known as Titella, in which the criminal organization supposedly led by television producer José Luis Moreno is being investigated. As of today, the National Court is obtaining the refusal for response when he goes to the Madrid Bar Association with these requests, since they are not contemplated in the Law, there are no items that finance the service either.

The problem, which no one seems to want to resolve, will also have a special impact in the recent future due to the issues that will gradually reach that body as a result of investigations into irregular use of European funds carried out by the European Public Prosecutor’s Office,

Sources from this body confirm to EL PERIÓDICO DE ESPAÑA that, “indeed”, the current situation may mean a problem for investigations of this department, due to the type of crimes under its jurisdiction -corruption, money laundering or cross-border VAT fraud-, and the habitual presence of investigated legal persons.

All of them have to have a designated lawyer when they are charged, since the opposite would mean, in practice, not being able to comply with European regulations in this regard. The problem was transferred to the European Prosecutor’s Office on February 10 by the dean of the Madrid Bar Association, Eugenio Ribón, who made his representatives in Spain see that they were not going to designate ex officio for this type of cases until they were paid. “And that is a problem,” they insist from this body.

Concentration of public defenders

The right of public defenders to be paid for all actions and work carried out, including the defense of legal persons, is one of the requests that justify the concentration that the associations that represent these lawyers have convened this Thursday in front of the Congress of Deputies. The arrival of lawyers from different parts of the country is expected to claim a “dignified” remuneration and according to the work they carry out, essential to guarantee the right of Defense.

The legal vacuum joins the no budget by the department commanded by Pillar Wolf with respect to the so-called ‘Ministry territory’, which includes central bodies such as the Supreme Court and the National Court and also at autonomous communities without jurisdiction in Justice such as Castilla-León, Castilla-La Mancha, Extremadura, Murcia and the Balearic Islands.

The ‘patch’ of the regional agreements

In other territories with this transferred power, such as Madrid, there are agreements with the regional authorities that take charge of the payment of these services to the lawyers of office in the ordinary courts. It is nothing more than a patchbut the reality is that when a court calls a public defender to represent a small company in a lawsuit, it depends on which body and to which territory it belongs to whether the lawyer can charge or not.

The situation, which dates back a long time, was recalled this Wednesday at a breakfast with the press by Dean Ribón, who described it as “slave labor” what is required of these lawyers.

The associations are asked to appoint a public defender for procedures and trials that last for months, even years, without these professionals being able to charge a single euro for it, which can jeopardize the continuity of professional firms -especially the little ones- and their own livelihoods. For this reason, colleges are refusing to designate ex officio lawyers for these matters, with the consequent affectation of the right of defense.

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The problem, merely budgetary in the opinion of the lawyers, has been transferred to the current Minister of Justice, which for the moment has not offered any solution. Sources from the Ministry of Justice confirm to this newspaper that as of today there is no proposal to reform the Free Legal Aid Law in order to solve this problem.

Nor is it contemplated to support the Bill of Law modification of free legal assistance promoted at the beginning of the legislature by the PP in the Senate, and in which it is defended that the defense of legal persons is not left at the risk of some regional subsidies that can be restricted at any time. The proposal sleep the sleep of the just in the Justice Commission upper house, where discussion is still pending.

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