Free Legal Aid and Administrative Violations Cases

Abstract

Irrespective of the type of legal liability, the right to legal aid is common and should cover administrativeviolations cases. Citizens should have a real opportunity to resort to legal aid irrespective of theirmaterial status. Increasingly, citizens cannot take advantage of the aid of defender due to the lack offunds to pay fee. The author proposes to amend Art. 25.2 of the Russian Federation AdministrativeViolations Code and the Federal Law of November 21, 2011 No 324-FZ On Free Legal Aid in theRussian Federation. The responsibility on financing measures targeting rendering free legal aid as tothe cases of administrative violations under the Russian Federation Administrative Violations Codeshould be taken by the RF, and as to the cases where administrative liability is regulated by the laws ofthe RF Constituent territories, such assistance should be ensured by the RF Constituent territories. Theauthor states that an important role in ensuring constitutional right to obtain qualified legal aid is givento judge. In the author’s opinion, the Administrative Violations Code should provide the mandatoryinvolvement of a defendant in the proceedings on administrative violations. As the issue presentedrequires serious examination, legislators should develop an efficient tool of compensating expenseson paying for legal aid by claiming funds from the state or municipal body (official) which initiated theproceeding if the case terminated due to the absence of act or corpus delicti. In the author’s opinion,the absence of norms in the Administrative Violations Code makes the implementation of the common principles of justice void and deprives citizens of resorting to the constitutional right of obtainingqualified legal aid. A pivotal task of Russian legislators under such circumstances is adding provisionsto Art 25 of the Russian Federation Administrative Violations Code to determine the cases of obligatoryparticipation of defender in administrative proceedings and involvement in court hearings.