The Georgian Bar Association attaches particular importance to ensuring the unhindered exercise by lawyers of their professional rights and duties as defined by law, as the practice of law constitutes one of the fundamental guarantees for the effective administration of justice and the exercise of the right to defence.

Pursuant to Article 31, Paragraph 3 of the Constitution of Georgia, the right to defence is guaranteed, and everyone has the right to defend their rights before a court, either personally or through a lawyer. The same constitutional provision guarantees the unhindered exercise of lawyers’ rights.

Article 38 of the Law of Georgia on Lawyers establishes fundamental guarantees for the legal protection of a lawyer’s professional activities. A lawyer shall independently perform their professional activities, and unlawful interference with their activities, obstruction of their professional work, improper influence by a state body or any other person, intimidation, harassment, coercion, persecution, pressure, or any other action that may undermine the lawyer’s independence shall be inadmissible.

Pursuant to this constitutional guarantee, the effective exercise of the right to defence entails ensuring free and confidential communication between a lawyer and their client, including safeguards for the protection of information and documentation obtained or created by the lawyer for the purpose of protecting the client’s interests.

Particular importance is attached to the principle of protection of professional legal secrecy. Pursuant to the Law of Georgia on Lawyers, any information received by a lawyer from a client or from any other person seeking legal advice is confidential. The same law protects the inviolability of communication between a lawyer and a client, including their correspondence and the relevant documentation created or received by the lawyer in the course of their professional activities.

The Georgian Bar Association emphasizes that obstruction of a lawyer’s professional activities and restrictions on confidential communication between a lawyer and a client pose a threat not only to the professional rights of an individual lawyer, but also to the constitutionally guaranteed right to defence and the fundamental principles governing the effective administration of justice.

Accordingly, the Georgian Bar Association calls upon all relevant state authorities to consider any issues related to the activities of lawyers in penitentiary institutions in accordance with the principles of lawyer independence, professional secrecy, confidential communication with clients, and the right to effective defence.

We consider that a record created by a lawyer during a meeting with a person under their defence does not constitute the correspondence of a prisoner; rather, it is a lawyer’s record created in the course of the lawyer’s professional activities and should not be interpreted as correspondence belonging to a prisoner. These two concepts must be clearly distinguished from one another.

We emphasize that any legal provision must be interpreted in a manner that excludes unlawful interference with the practice of law and ensures the rights guaranteed by the Constitution of Georgia and the Law of Georgia on Lawyers.

The Georgian Bar Association is ready and requests consultations with the Ministry of Justice to discuss the interpretation of the relevant provisions and, where necessary, the possibility of amending them, in order to ensure the unhindered exercise of lawyers’ professional activities and the full realization of rights guaranteed by law without any impediment.

The Georgian Bar Association has always responded, and will continue to respond, immediately, firmly, and appropriately to any instance of possible obstruction of a lawyer’s professional activities, and calls upon investigative authorities to ensure the promptest possible investigation of such incidents.

The Georgian Bar Association stands firmly in defence of the principles safeguarding the exercise of the legal profession.

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