Lawyers and e Justice

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1 Council Bars & Law Societies Europe Lawyers and e Justice e Justice and e Law Conference Rome, October 2014 Corte di Cassazione Aldo Bulgarelli President Council Bars and Law Societies Europe (CCBE)

2 Council Council Bars Bars & Law Law Societies Societies Europe Europe Conseil Conseil des des barreaux barreaux européensf européensf Rue Rue Joseph Joseph II, II, 40/8 40/8 - B-1000 B-1000 Brussels Brussels T.: T.: F.: F.: ccbe@ccbe.eu ccbe@ccbe.eu Follow Follow us us on on / Suivez-nous Suivez-nous Introduction to the CCBE

3 Council Council Bars Bars & Law Law Societies Societies Europe Europe Conseil Conseil des des barreaux barreaux européensf européensf Rue Rue Joseph Joseph II, II, 40/8 40/8 - B-1000 B-1000 Brussels Brussels T.: T.: F.: F.: ccbe@ccbe.eu ccbe@ccbe.eu Follow Follow us us on on / Suivez-nous Suivez-nous Introduction to the CCBE 32 full members and 13 associate and observer members Over 1,000,000 European lawyers

4 Council Bars & Law Societies Europe CCBE at the heart e Justice An overview the European projects undertaken by the CCBE within the framework e Justice FIND A LAWYER 1 One stop shop solution to cross border searches for European lawyers FIND A LAWYER 2 Lawyers Role Verification in e proceedings e CODEX e Justice Communication via Online Data Exchange European Training Platform EU wide e platform with legal training courses EVIDENCE European Informatics Data Exchange Frameworks for Courts and Evidence

5 Council Bars & Law Societies Europe Why e Justice matters to lawyers? If properly managed, e Justice systems can improve citizens access to justice, including better and faster justice (and make life easier for lawyers); There might be legal implications for lawyers when participating in electronic communications with (cross border) courts, e.g. regarding deontology, data protection, pressional liability, rules evidence, etc.; New practical tools might be introduced which lawyers will need to master, e.g. e identification, e filing, e service documents, electronic payment orders, electronic registers, access to cross border e justice systems, etc.; Electronic court procedures may enable law firms to run their practice more efficiently and reduce overhead costs.

6 Council Bars & Law Societies Europe Why lawyers are relevant for the development e Justice? Lawyers are among the main users e Justice applications Any deployment e justice systems will need to take into account the statutory and deontological rights and duties lawyers, e.g.: e Justice systems need to be secure and support an "electronic equality arms" and "access to justice ; e Justice systems have to enable lawyers to use at least the full procedural rights that they previously had under paper based systems; When using e justice systems, lawyers have to be capable acquiring evidence for their acts done within the court system, i.e. the possibility filing and archiving electronic documents and related metadata (e.g. delivery date, receipts) in a reliable manner, even after a court might have deleted the original file.

7 e Justice and the lawyers directives (1) Temporary services (77/249/EEC) Council Bars & Law Societies Europe An EU lawyer (as defined in the list titles detailed in the directive) is entitled to undertake any temporary service in another Member State under home title (the only exceptions are where a Member State specifically reserves to home state lawyers the procedure for granting probate and transactions creating or transferring an interest in land) Where a lawyer undertakes representation before a court or public authority in another Member State, the law, procedures and ethical rules are governed by the host state For the rest, the conditions and rules pressional conduct the home state apply, without prejudice to host state rules

8 e Justice and the lawyers directives (2) Establishment (98/5/EC): Council Bars & Law Societies Europe An EU lawyer (as defined in the list titles detailed in the directive) established in another Member State is able to carry out under his home pressional title the same pressional activities as a host state lawyer, including advising on home and host state law When undertaking court work, the host state rules apply, and in addition an EU established lawyer can be required to work in conjunction with a host state lawyer Procedures for undertaking probate or creating or transferring an interest in land can be restricted to lawyers from Member States where lawyers undertake such work Established lawyers are subject to double deontology i.e. they must respect the home and host state pressional rules Host states are entitled to forbid established lawyers from being in house counsel or otherwise employed in salaried practice if their own rules forbid such a status for their own lawyers

9 Council Bars & Law Societies Europe Lawyers identity and client mandate In some Member States, lawyers have to prove their lawyer s qualification on filing (lawyer s identity) that will be certified by the authorities Member States can also request from the lawyer the mandate the client to act on his/her behalf Since the pro lawyer s identity and client mandate are compulsory in some Member States, cross border e justice systems need to deal with both issues the electronic world has to follow the rules the paper world (CCBE FAL 2 project)

10 Council Bars & Law Societies Europe A practical example lawyers participation in e CODEX: the European Arrest Warrant EAW: It is a legal instrument which is intended to provide a straightforward system whereby a person is surrendered for trial from the State where they have been arrested (the requested State) to the State that has issued the warrant (issuing State). Judges and prosecutors are already organised e.g. Eurojust. Lawyers do not have a similar structure, so equality arms is not fully guaranteed. e CODEX can improve the way lawyers participate in EAW cases, providing better access to justice.

11 Council Bars & Law Societies Europe Conclusions 1. The development e justice systems without the participation all the actors, including private actors such as lawyers, would not be very useful. 2. Civil servants and IT contractors need to take account the experience all the actors involved in e Justice, including the day to day expertise lawyers using the courts and judicial procedures. 3. Care needs to be taken that the system drawn up in the virtual world does not because ease technology or harmonised procedures undermine the laws that govern citizens and actors in e Justice in the real world.

12 Council Bars & Law Societies Europe Thank you for your attention!