The State Duma plans to reject a bill that would simplify the procedure for lawyers’ access to the buildings of the Federal Bailiff Service. Now lawyers can only get there with a passport. The Legislative Assembly of the Leningrad Region proposed allowing entry with a lawyer’s ID; the idea was supported in the Smolensk, Nizhny Novgorod, Amur regions, Krasnodar Territory and other regions. The State Duma believes that the traditional passage pattern is necessary to ensure security and does not interfere with defenders in carrying out their professional activities.
On June 18, the Duma Committee on State Construction recommended rejecting the draft amendments to the federal law on advocacy developed by the Legislative Assembly of the Leningrad Region. Deputies proposed expanding the list of facilities where defenders can be admitted with an official ID. Now these are court buildings and prosecutor’s offices; it was proposed to also add the premises of bodies and structures of the Federal Bailiff Service (FSSP) to the list.
The authors of the amendments referred to the experience of members of the Chamber of Lawyers of the Leningrad Region, when only their official ID – without a passport – does not allow you to get into the bailiffs’ buildings. This circumstance creates problems for defenders when accompanying enforcement proceedings, the deputies explained. Lawyers in such cases can act “both on the side of the claimant and on the side of the debtor,” the explanatory note says. Experts interviewed by Kommersant supported the initiative (see “Kommersant” dated February 13), stating that lawyers regularly encounter similar practices in the buildings of the FSSP and this creates “artificial barriers” in protecting the rights of clients at the stage of execution of judicial acts. The proposed changes were also supported by regional legislative assemblies – Smolensk, Nizhny Novgorod, Amur regions, Krasnodar Territory, Komi Republic, Kabardino-Balkaria.
The Duma committee, however, called the amendments inappropriate and proposed that the upper house of parliament reject them – the corresponding conclusion was published in the State Duma database.
“The requirements for compliance with the access control regime” and the presentation of an identity card, including a passport, when entering the bailiffs’ buildings “are determined by security purposes and cannot be regarded as an obstacle to the lawyer’s carrying out his professional activities,” said the conclusion of the head of the committee, Pavel Krasheninnikov.
The Russian government did not support the amendments either. In conclusion, the Cabinet of Ministers reminds that a passport is the main document of a citizen, and a lawyer’s certificate only confirms his authority to carry out professional activities, but does not prove his identity. “The requirement to present a passport cannot be regarded as an obstacle to a lawyer’s ability to carry out his professional activities,” the Russian government also considered. They also reminded that with a lawyer’s ID you cannot enter the buildings of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the National Guard, the Investigative Committee of Russia, the Ministry of Finance and some other departments. Mr. Krasheninnikov points out in his response that the document was also not supported by the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation.
The current list of facilities where you can go with an official ID was formed in April 2024 by amendments to the law on advocacy. At the stage of their development, the possibility of using this document to enter “the premises of government agencies where citizens detained pending trial are being held” was discussed. However, the corresponding amendment was ultimately rejected by the Duma Committee on State Construction.
