Dimitris Vervesos welcomes the passage of the bill on the expansion of law enforcement

Welcomes the enlargement of the law, following its vote , the President of the plenary session of the Presidents of the Greek Bar Associations, Dimitris Vervesos points out that this legislation “is one of the most important moments for the law body, since, first and foremost, it confirms the role of lawyer as a unpaid public servant, beyond that, as a legal representative and adviser and institutionally upgrades his position as a syllabus of Themida”. More specifically, the statement by the President of the Full Court is as follows: “The Greek Parliament passed today the Law of the Ministry of Justice on the Expansion of Law and the Settlement of Legal Assistance Compensation. This is the first time, after many years, that court matter is transferred to lawyers in an attempt to decongest the courts and create conditions for speeding up the rates of justice. Affidavits, consensual prescriptions (registrations and eliminations), inheritances, inheritance earnings, unions, now belong to the work of the lawyer, effectively recognizing his institutional role, increasing his prestige and broadening his professional activity. The bill was voted for by New Democracy, Syriza PS, PASOK-KINAL and Niki. It was voted down by the Communist Party and the New Left. Present were the Spartans, the Greek Solution, and the Free Sea. We believe that this legislation is one of the most important moments for the law body, since, above all, it confirms the role of lawyer as a unpaid public servant, beyond that, as a legal representative and adviser and institutionally upgrades his position as a collector of Themida. Against this, minority logics, which were articulated today in the Greek Parliament, find the majority of the law body in a vertical contrast and will be isolated, both them and their expressers. In particular: 1. The position which considers the transfer of the upper court matter to lawyers as a form of privatisation of justice, ignores the provision of Article 1 of the Code of Lawyers, which provides that the lawyer is a public servant, a provision for the establishment of which lawyers and legal associations competed over time. The lawyer is not a mere private expert, but an important associate Themida minister and those who want to degrade his institutional role have no place in the law family. 2. The view that the relevant provisions conflict with the Constitution does not contradict the settled case-law of the Supreme Courts of the Country, which has held that the lawyer, due to the functional nature of his profession, may participate in the issuance of the pensions of the EPKA and that his participation in the mediation process is constitutional. Furthermore, the current participation of lawyers as bankruptcy syndicates, heritage school guardians, covenant liquidators, court representatives in all kinds of anti-constitutionalities (national elections, European Parliament elections, municipal and regional elections, union administration etc.) has raised no issue of unconstitutionality. In addition, such an issue has not been raised for notaries as to their participation in the issuance of consensual divorces, the drafting of auction boards, etc. 3. And those who, with more populism, break their clothes for the minimal increase in the cost of access to justice, avoid referring to the multiple benefits that will result from the acceleration of the administration of justice and the shortening of the current period of trial of 1711 days, which ranks Greece in the last positions of the European Union and which will occur from the disengagement of judges from procedural procedures of voluntary jurisdiction and their involvement in their purely judicial duties, which will have enormous positive consequences for both the economy and the average Greek citizen, who is currently experiencing phenomena of denial. 4. Those who characterise these measures as a substitute or crumb, without proposing any other substantive solutions to increase legal income in the difficult current economic and social circumstances, limited to the nullification of the problem, come in particular from those who were directed against the institutions of the law body, praising representatives of other branches for smaller-scale successes (consentaries for consensual divorces, engineers for certificates, accountants etc.) 5. The contribution of lawyers to the process of granting justice and accelerating it is now particularly important. Attempts to compare between Justices and Lawyers and to degrade or devalue lawyers, that they supposedly do not have the appropriate knowledge to achieve the task assigned to them, they are inspired by an anti-lawyer, they ignore the distinct role of justice officials and concubines, but also the necessary cooperation and interaction for the rapid and correct administration of Justice and serve all other purposes and are echoed by personal bitterness. We understand the doctrinal reasons or political expediencies that dictate these positions, but we will continue to look lawyers in the eye, moving towards the future and leaving behind the logic of the past, with which the law industry has been divorced in recent years.”