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‘Active influx of civil cases will be registered from 2013. I strongly doubt that one single Defender isolated in one region will be able to equally help both in civil and in criminal cases’ noted the Head of the Public Defender’s Office Masis Ghazanchyan during the conversation with the reporter of ‘Pastinfo.am’.

‘Pastinfo.am’ already addressed this issue that the amendments to the RA law on advocacy will be in force from January 1, 2013, which will enlarge the list of the services provided by the Public Defender. The socially vulnerable groups, disabled people, lonely pensioners, orphan children and others will also be able to receive legal assistance free of charge since 2013.

According to M. Ghazanchyan even though the number of Public Defenders has increased by 18 (today 54 lawyers work instead of 36 in the past, who are distributed between the regions and the capital), the added number of positions is still not enough to ensure the proper deadlines and high quality.

‘For example, we have a problem of specialists in the areas of Goris, Sisian. In the area of Meghri now there is neither a public defender nor any lawyer as such. There is no inhabitant in Meghri with higher juridical education that would come to pass an exam and become a lawyer. No one goes from Yerevan to work there, other regions are lacking specialists by themselves’ noted Ghazanchyan, adding that one of the issues of Public Defenders in the regions is the issue of movement on the whole territory of the region.

‘The lawyer of Kapan tries to work pro bono for the inhabitants of Meghri area, but he cannot go to Megri for every case, neither the inhabitants of Meghri can go to Kapan. There should be an office in this area, which will provide consultations to the citizens’ noted Ghazanchyan.

According to his words due to the lack of specialists they cannot appoint a lawyer on competitive basis. ‘Either we have to leave that area without a Defender or go along with lawyers suggested and appointed on non-competitive basis, given that we do not have a choice in some regions’.

According to him, besides the fact that there are no appropriate law specialists, in the regions the legal consciousness is not low but is totally absent.