Good Practices for Relations between Judges and Professional Attorneys in Civil Proceedings
At a conference at Łazarski University on 8 June 2018 we presented the proposed code of best practice drafted by a group of Polish advocates, legal advisers and judges. Now we are circulating it for comment, and look forward to hearing your views.
The quality of the relations and proper cooperation between judges and counsel are vital for achieving the main goals of court proceedings, which are issuing a just ruling in a fair trial and upholding the rule of law.
Proper relations between judges and professional attorneys are grounded on the rules of professional ethics. It may be helpful to expand on those general, fundamental principles by developing specific recommendations and guidelines. To that end, a group of Polish legal professionals consulted models from foreign jurisdictions to draw up a proposal of 41 practical guidelines which judges and counsel should follow in their mutual relations.
The draft code of best practice is divided into five sections:
- Cardinal principles
- Pre-trial actions
- Actions at the initial stage of trial
- Evidence and hearings
- Justifying and appealing against rulings.
Some of the principles presented are common sense and should not generate any controversy (pleadings should be clear, concise and relevant to the dispute, with orderly enclosures and appropriately detailed and specific factual allegations). Others may come across as more debatable, such as the assertion that counsel “should be the first judge in the client’s matter.” This stirred lively discussion at the conference, mainly due to the use of the word “judge” in the context of the pre-litigation role of lawyers. But the speakers at the conference agreed that counsel’s role at this early stage of any case is to provide the client with objective information enabling the client to take a fully informed decision on the further course of the dispute (e.g. an assessment of the merit of the client’s claims, a thorough analysis of the factual and legal nature of the case, and an estimate of the likelihood of success). It was also argued that the lawyer should refuse to take the case if it appears from the evidence that the client does not hold a valid claim, and pursuing further legal measures would not be aimed at vindicating the client’s rights but only at obstruction.
The drafters of the code of best practice hope that the proposal becomes a model for both bench and bar. They believe that if these principles are implemented in practice, it will immeasurably contribute to the improvement of the justice system in Poland.
We are interested in what you think. Write to us:
Stanisław Drozd, stanislaw.drozd@wardynski.com.pl
Łukasz Lasek, lukasz.lasek@wardynski.com.pl