MAIN OFFENCES ENTAILING THE CRIMINAL LIABILITY OF LAWYERS
MAIN OFFENCES ENTAILING THE CRIMINAL LIABILITY OF LAWYERS

Summary/Abstract: In all jurisdictions, Bars play a central role in disciplinary surveillance. The Bar or its official representatives study the complaints initially and they are entitled to take disciplinary measures. Often, committees deal with complaints, such a duty is performed by disciplinary authorities, comprising the members of Bar Council or mixed committees created to this end. In almost all jurisdictions, a disciplinary committee that may comprise members of the legal system is entitled to appeal, even to file an appeal in civil court. Sanctions are quite similar, ranging from threatening with fines to temporary or permanent suspension. Execution is important in this matter; the Bar is in charge with collecting the fines. The violation of certain sanctions can represent grounds for criminal liability (e.g., in the case of a suspended lawyer who still exercises his profession). The economy of legal provisions suggests that the law regulating the profession of lawyer does not exclude legal responsibility overlapping. In other words, the criminal liability of lawyers can overlap civil (patrimonial) liability. The civil and criminal liability is entailed by an illicit act, which brings prejudice to a moral value. Whereas, in the past, the two forms of criminal liability could not be distinguished, their differentiation has increased over time and it has been accepted by all law systems. Therefore, civil liability is involved whenever a person – in our case, the lawyer – commits an illegal act that causes a prejudice (e.g., to the State). If an illicit act is mentioned in the criminal law, it entails the criminal liability of the wrongdoer, though the act may not have brought prejudice to a certain person. Within criminal liability and disciplinary liability, the form and degree of guilt represent an essential element, both for the characterization as offence or disciplinary infringement of the lawyer’s illicit act, and for the application of criminal punishment or disciplinary sanction. However, in terms of moral responsibility, the essential element is the lawyer’s behaviour related to the ethical and social principles imposed by special regulations and by the community to which the lawyer pertains.

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