Formalization of powers as an element of obtaining the lawyer’s legal status

Abstract

A lawyer's empowerment is an important element in his/her professional activity since it not only establishes the essence of his/her relationship with a client but also determines the peculiarities of the lawyer's individual legal status. It is determined by the fact that, on the one hand, documents that certify the lawyer's powers, in particular, can determine the limits of his/her procedural capacity, and on the other hand – the proper registration of the lawyer's powers is undoubtedly a guarantee of his/her successful preparatory as well as all subsequent activities in providing professional legal assistance. In addition, the proper formalization of the lawyer's powers is, first of all, one of the main guarantees of a qualified professional judiciary (legal) assistance to a client (first of all, regarding the client's realization of his / her claims concerning the lawyer's unlawful activity). The relevance of the study topic is also manifested by the fact that from the moment of attaining a lawyer’s status, a person receives only a professional status, however, the realization of a significant number of elements of this status is impossible beyond his/her exercise of their procedural and (or) non- procedural form of advocacy activity, therefore, full realization of a professional component of the lawyer's status is possible only with the proper formalization of the lawyer's powers. It is determined by the fact that from the moment of the lawyer's powers formalization and his/her introduction in the corresponding process (providing documents confirming his/her powers to certain authorized entities), he/she acquires an appropriate individual legal status, which gives him/her the opportunity to fully use the complex of professional (provided by legislation on the bar) as well as procedural rights. Unfortunately, neither in theory nor in practice the uniform approaches have been elaborated as to the proper formalization of the lawyer's procedural powers. Despite the fact that most procedural codes clearly state the grounds and documents confirming a lawyer's powers, there are cases when courts and other authorized entities unreasonably fail to recognize the validity of their powers on the basis of certain documents. Regarding the non-procedural form of the lawyer's activity, given the multifaceted possibility of its realization, it can be argued that the law enforcement activities of other institutions and organizations do not differ from courts in these matters.