The reform that prevents lawyers with records of abuse from assisting victims re

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Today, Thursday, the reform of the free legal aid regulation was published in the Official State Gazette, which prohibits public defenders with criminal records involving sexist violence from practicing the profession in this specific specialty. Royal Decree 586/2022, of July 19, which modifies the Regulation on free legal assistance , requires an “ extra requirement ” for lawyers who provide free legal assistance services to victims of gender violence based on the specificities that they present. Specifically, as can be seen from the text, it is necessary to protect legal professionals from offering such victims a legal defense that allows them to achieve a “ reciprocal relationship of trust that cannot be broken.” The Royal Decree consists of an article that contains two sections and a single final provision This particularly beneficial treatment recognized in the present reform is guided by a key circumstance: “ the relationship of professional-justiciable trust .”


In fact, if in general this nuance is fundamental in any lawyer-client relationship, “ especially care must be taken in crimes of gender violence,” the rule warns. Other especially vulnerable victims Away from the victims of gender violence, the reform does not forget a list of especially vulnerable groups that, based on the same reasons stated above, it is also appropriate to guarantee that extra reciprocal trust between those who lead the legal defense and the benefit of justice. free. View of the WhatsApp Number List access to a violence against women court in Madrid. (Photo: EFE/Juan Carlos Hidalgo) That is, what happens to the victims of terrorism and human trafficking , minors and people with disabilities ? Well, according to the letter of the rule, the new specific requirement consisting of not having a criminal record for crimes of a similar nature also extends to the attorney-client relationship with this group of especially vulnerable people. Consequently, “they will not be able to exercise legal defense in the office in relation to victims of the same condition as those for which they have been convicted,” the Royal Decree states.



The reform also affects attorneys The Royal Decree discussed here has introduced letters c) and d) in section 2 of art. 32 of the Regulations on free legal aid. Thus, in addition to the minimum general requirements required of court attorneys to provide the free legal assistance services known to date (having an office open in the territory of the judicial district in which they are to act and accrediting the assistance to the training courses that, for this purpose, have been organized by the Colleges of Attorneys, as well as the passing of the aptitude tests held at the end of the same) the professionals of the Attorney General's Office who from now on provide their legal assistance services free to victims of gender violence, terrorist crimes and human trafficking, or to victims of any crime when they are minors or people with disabilities in need of special protection, they may not have a criminal record for crimes committed, respectively . , on each of the classes of victims listed above.