Currently in Kazakhstan both individuals (in other words, citizens) and legal persons (organizations) are provided with a wide range of rights and freedoms. Sometimes, these rights and freedoms are violated in any way. Given that not everyone is legally competent, and such incidents sometimes make you to seek protection or elementary advice from various legal firms, you should know what legal services in Kazakhstan can help to protect yourself, your family, your business from a variety of threats.
Many of you quite often see a lot of the most diverse advertisements for legal services and does not even have a general idea about what are legal services, and mix the concept of the lawyer, attorney and notary into one thing. Often, due to lack of understanding of these concepts, ignorance of their practical importance, there is a mess, and you spend your time searching for a specialist in a particular sphere of law, to solve the problems, with the risk of becoming a victim of either amateurs or fraudsters.
In this article we will talk in detail about what are legal services, what kinds of legal services are most common in Kazakhstan, and how to choose a lawyer to get qualified legal assistance.
So what are the legal services? This concept is quite extensive. In simple terms, it is a qualified legal assistance. But if you approach to the explanation of this concept in more detail, we can say that legal services are certain activities of a legal nature, which include the following activity:
— Consultation and clarification of the current legislation, as well as ways of implementing specific rights in different situations;
— Preparation, development, analysis, examination of legal documents of very different orientation (applications, claims, complaints, petitions, agreements, contracts, etc.);
— Protection of the rights and legitimate interests of citizens and organizations by legal professionals in the form of representation of interests in the various governmental bodies and other organizations;
— Representation in courts on civil matters in the consideration of civil disputes: vindication of property from unlawful possession, debt collection, divorce, division of property, paternity, alimony, appeal for the orders on dismissal and reinstatement, recovery of unpaid wages, etc.;
— Protection of the rights and freedoms of citizens and organizations in bodies of inquiry, preliminary investigation, prosecution bodies, courts of all instances for administrative and criminal cases (carried out mainly by attorneys);
— Legal support of business.
The list goes on long enough, because law disputes arising between individuals, public authorities, economic entities in each sphere, for the resolution of which the timely qualified legal assistance is required. The guarantee of the quality of legal services is not simply include a higher legal education and knowledge of legislation but also the ability to apply the knowledge in practice and legal experience.
Now let’s consider the types of legal services provided by different entities: attorneys, notaries and other lawyers specializing on specific issues. For the overall presentation it is necessary to know the basic concepts associated with certain types of legal services.
So, let’s suppose that you contact an attorney in the Republic of Kazakhstan. Elementary minimum that you need to know includes the following: in the Kazakhstan legislation there is no concept of “attorney services”, but there is the concept of “advocacy”, “lawyer” which are given in the Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan “On Advocacy”. In our opinion, they are generally used for understanding. According to part 3 Art. 1 of the above Law “The advocacy is a qualified legal assistance provided on a professional basis by the attorneys in accordance with the procedure established by this Law, in order to protect and facilitate the exercise of the rights, freedoms and lawful interests of individuals and the rights and legitimate interests of legal persons.”
In accordance with Part. 1, Art. 7 of the Law “On Advocacy”, “Attorney is a citizen of the Republic of Kazakhstan, who has a law degree, obtained a license to practice law, necessarily being a member of the Bar and providing legal assistance on a professional basis in the sphere of advocacy, regulated by this law.” We will derive the concept of “attorney services” on the basis of these concepts.
So, the attorney services directly include those legal services provided in a professional manner by qualified lawyers who received a license to protect the rights, freedoms and interests of citizens and organizations, as well as ensuring access to justice.
Do not confuse the legal services provided by attorneys with advisory services that provide workers of the legal services organizations, employees of public authorities and local authorities, members and employees of organizations providing legal services, as well as individual entrepreneurs, notaries or other persons who are specifically authorized by law to conduct their professional activities.
Here are concrete examples of legal services in criminal and civil proceedings: representation in court; protection of the rights of suspects and accused persons during the conduct of investigative actions (questioning, presentation for identification, investigative experiment, etc.); assistance in the drafting of contracts, applications, complaints, petitions; legal assistance in transactions; preparation of statutory documents of the organization, etc.
In contrast to the attorneys the lawyers are not entitled to carry out the defense function in the criminal proceedings, but they may provide all other legal services.
Most people associate an attorney with the man who protects the rights of one of the parties in court. Indeed, participation of an attorney in the trial is the primary form of provision of the accused person, the plaintiff or the defendant with the right for the protection in court in accordance with the principle, set in the normative act having supreme legal force at the territory of Kazakhstan – the Constitution of the Republic of Kazakhstan. An attorney acting as the representative of the plaintiff (defendant) or the defendant’s counsel, in accordance with the legislation of the Republic of Kazakhstan shall have the right to request the certificates, specifications and other necessary documents from the state and public organizations in connection with the exercise of their professional activities.
In addition, an attorney shall keep confidential the details that are associated with the provision of legal assistance by the attorney to a client, even the fact of applying to an attorney is already a law secret and not subject to disclosure.
As for notaries, the term “notary” is set in the Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan “On Notary”. The notaries mean certain organ system, the purpose of which is to ensure, in accordance with the legislation of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the protection of the rights and legitimate interests of citizens and legal entities by performing notarial acts by notaries.
Similarly, as for attorneys, for clarity, let’s consider the term “notary services”. Notary services are activities performed directly by notaries for certification of legal facts (transactions, contracts, wills, etc.), registration of inheritance rights, testimony documents and performance of other notarial acts, aimed at securing a legal civil rights and obligations and prevention of their further possible violation.
Here are specific examples of notary services: drafting of documents, making copies of documents and extracts from them, etc. Notary can only be a citizen of the Republic of Kazakhstan who has reached the age of twenty-five years, having higher legal education, work experience in the legal profession for at least two years, undergone special training and passed the qualification exam, working in the public notary office or engaged in a private practice and performing notarial acts.
In conclusion, I would like to say that the SION & Partners law company based on the client’s request may provide a legal assessment of the correctness of the chosen strategy and tactics employed by your attorney or lawyer in any criminal or civil case, based on their experience and knowledge, and also help the customer to choose the right lawyer or attorney in any region.
Specialization
Mobile Office
Legal Practise
