In the afternoon of April 22, the National Assembly discussed in the hall about piloting the institution of public lawyers.
According to the Government's proposal, public lawyers will be piloted in 8 ministries and 10 localities, implemented from October 1, 2026 - September 30, 2028.
At the hall, delegate Nguyen Cong Hoang (Thai Nguyen delegation) expressed support for piloting the institution of public lawyers. However, this person cited a proposal in the draft that public lawyers must be cadres, civil servants, public employees, officers..., so the relationship between public lawyers and procedural titles needs to be paid attention to.
This delegate hypothesized that in the case of public lawyers being superiors, so when "public lawyers sit below to speak, will the judges be fair to handle and respond?".
Conversely, if a public lawyer is a subordinate, even if the case is very correct, will they dare to refute the judge who is their superior?
From there, delegate Nguyen Cong Hoang proposed that there should be a mechanism to ensure that public lawyers bring benefits and real fairness.
Delegate Nguyen Thi Hong Hanh - Director of Ho Chi Minh City Department of Justice - said that Article 3 has 4 principles, including the principle of complying with the rules of ethics and professional conduct of lawyers.
According to this regulation, public lawyers will comply with the code of ethics and professional conduct of lawyers issued by the Bar Federation according to Decision No. 201. This code of conduct has 32 rules, many of which are not suitable for the specific characteristics of public lawyers.
It is necessary to determine which rules public lawyers will comply with in this set of 32 rules. In addition, Clause 3, Article 3 of the draft stipulates the principle of independence, honesty, and respect for objective truth. This is also rule number 2 in the set of 32 rules of the Bar Federation.
Therefore, this delegate proposed that the drafting agency consider and review 32 rules to stipulate them immediately in this draft resolution to suit the specific characteristics of public lawyers.
Another issue this delegate identified is that the workload between agencies is not the same, not to mention the different qualifications, there may be a situation where public lawyers do not receive any cases in a whole month.
Meanwhile, according to Resolution 197 of the National Assembly, the principle of enjoying monthly support is for people performing tasks directly and regularly.
Ms. Hanh proposed to add a condition for public lawyers to receive monthly salaries, which is that a legally significant case must arise in the month, or stipulate conditions not to be entitled to monthly benefits such as: being on leave, long-term treatment, maternity leave, no incidents occurring...
Explaining before the National Assembly, Minister of Justice Hoang Thanh Tung said that he will coordinate with the Standing Committee of the Law and Justice Committee to study carefully to absorb the valid opinions of the National Assembly deputies who have contributed.
Regarding the standards for public lawyers, the Minister said that first of all, this entity must meet the standards of a lawyer according to the Law on Lawyers, in order to ensure legal status when participating in international lawsuits.
However, the drafting agency will study in the direction of general regulations in the resolution and assign the Government to provide detailed regulations to suit the specific characteristics of public lawyers.
