Lawyers "defend rule of law," resume work

Lawyers "defend rule of law," resume work

After months of failed attempts, the Ministry of Justice and the Serbian Bar Association came to an agreement near the end of 2014 based on which parliament last week adopted urgent amendments to the laws on notaries public, real estate trade, out-of-court procedure, family and inheritance.

The most important changes from the lawyers' and citizens' point of view, is that papers from the notaries public will no longer be mandatory for all contracts involving change of real estate ownership.

The notaries will only write real estate contracts for persons legally deemed incapable of business decisions and support agreements. Mortgage contracts and statements on collateral can also be drafted by notaries if the client wishes so.

As for the taxes, which caused the Belgrade lawyers to go on strike for 15 days last summer, the government changed the disputed law near the end of 2014.

According to the new regulations, the flat-rate tax for the lawyers will not be higher by more than 10 percent in 2014 when compared to 2013, which was what the lawyers wanted.

Around 100,000 trials were postponed during the strike, along with a large number of police interviews and other trial-related procedures.

A number of lawyers who did not follow the strike-related instructions about appearing in police stations, prosecutors' offices and before court were disbarred.

Lawyer Jugoslav Tintor said that the changes to the laws meant that "elementary principles of the rule of law have been defended." He also said that the strike "did not harm the Serbian judiciary," and added:

"We reinstated the right to lawyers and citizens to draft contracts, we defended the freedom of contracting and the private-legal matters. These are very important things. The moment they are brought into question in a democratic society we must wonder, 'what's next'."

Tintor thanked his colleagues for their solidarity and perseverance "without which the protest would not have been successful."

"I also thank citizens for their understanding and support, because they knew that the reasons for the protest were justified, and the judiciary, above all judges who, I would say, showed their tacit professional solidarity since they acted in a neutral manner in the conflict between the executive power and the lawyers, in that way preserving their integrity," he said.