The Spanish Lawyers have closed their XIII National Congress with an ambitious roadmap that will set their goals for the coming years. The conclusions of this city held at the Port Aventura convention center include a package of proposals for amendments to the Right of Defense Bill.
Among these amendments, which address very diverse aspects, it includes a reinforcement of the presumption of innocence, the assurance of the guarantees of legal advice for the detainee, a greater specification regarding the guarantees of professional secrecy and the establishment of fee criteria for the litigant can know the possible cost of taking legal actions, among others.
The conclusions of the presentation on Rights and Freedoms today also include the refusal of the collegiate amparo trial, established to protect the dignity of the lawyer in the exercise of his profession.
The 44 conclusions were voted on at the end of five deliberative sessions, in which more than a thousand participants discussed the main challenges facing the profession today.
On intermediation and new business models, there were, among other conclusions, determining the scope of professional secrecy for company lawyers, and asking the legislator to establish a specific class action for damages caused in the field of competition law, without the mandatory participation of consumer and user associations.
The need for the regular use of Artificial Intelligence systems for the provision of legal services and the exercise of defense, as well as for the selection of legal professionals, was also voted on. It was decided that the institutional legal profession establish training programs aimed at facilitating the access of professionals to digital technologies and tools.
The conclusions also include various aspects of the need for regular continuous training and specialization, periodic certifications to update knowledge, as well as a training program available to all professionals, which guarantees the improvement of opportunities. Continuous compulsory training in the field of free legal assistance is approved, training that must be free for the professional and subsidized by public administrations.
The conclusions also ask that the General Council of Lawyers establish the requirements for the different specialties, but also that specialization is not mandatory, nor does it imply a reservation of activity.
And in relation to deontological falsifications, it was stated, among other issues, to establish duties of custody and control of data submitted to automated treatment or its traffic in devices, ensuring the protection of personal data, confidentiality and guarantee of professional secrecy; the creation of a Cybersecurity Observatory for the Legal Profession within the General Council of the Legal Profession, or the adoption of specific deontological criteria in the new extra-procedural areas of the profession, particularly in mediation, data protection and business compliance
In relation to free justice, it is said that "without delay promoted a new Law regulating the matter" has been addressed to the public powers. But, as long as this law is not approved, the inclusion of a final provision in the text of the Law of Defense bill was urged, so that "legal persons prosecuted are included as creditors of the benefit of free justice criminally", and to establish that "The intervention of professionals appointed ex officio for free assistance, defense and representation will be compensated in all cases, even in those cases in which there is no express recognition of the right to free legal assistance".
In conclusion, it is also possible to establish the clarity and homogeneity of the criteria for granting the benefit of free justice, and to revalue it annually and provide financial compensation, so that it is the same in all communities.
The support for free justice and the ex officio turn was also translated, on the third and last day of the Congress, in a Manifesto, which called for "a clear and effective system for the citizenry and also the dignity of the work of the legal professionals”. There is also a concentration of all attendees in defense of this essential service.
