Currently, in Kazakhstan, both individuals (in other words, citizens) and legal entities (organizations) are provided with a wide range of rights and freedoms. Sometimes, these rights and freedoms can be violated in one way or another. Considering that not everyone is legally literate, and such incidents sometimes force one to seek protection or basic advice from various law firms, it is necessary to know what legal services are in Kazakhstan, how to protect yourself, your loved ones, your business from various threats today.
Many of you quite often see a lot of different advertisements for the provision of legal services, while not even having a general idea of what legal services are, and the concepts of lawyer, attorney, notary merge into one whole. Often, due to a misunderstanding of these concepts, ignorance of their practical meaning, confusion arises, and you waste your time looking for a specialist in a particular branch of law to solve the problems that have arisen, while risking becoming a victim of either amateurs or scammers.
In this article, we will try to tell you in detail what legal services are, what types of legal services are most common in Kazakhstan, and how to choose a lawyer to receive qualified legal assistance.
So what are legal services? This concept is quite broad. In simple terms, it is qualified legal assistance. But if we approach the explanation of this concept in more detail, we can say that legal services are a certain legal activity, which includes:
— consulting and explanation of the norms of current legislation, as well as methods of exercising specific rights in various life situations;
— preparation, development, analysis, examination of legal documents of various types (applications, claims, complaints, petitions, agreements, contracts, etc.);
— protection of the rights and legitimate interests of citizens and organizations by professional lawyers in the form of representing interests in various government agencies and other organizations;
— representation in courts in civil cases when considering civil disputes: recovery of property from someone else’s illegal possession, debt collection, divorce, division of property, establishment of paternity, collection of alimony, appeal of orders on dismissal and reinstatement at work, collection of unpaid wages, etc.;
— protection of the rights and freedoms of citizens and organizations in bodies of inquiry, preliminary investigation, prosecutor’s offices, courts of all instances in administrative and criminal cases (carried out mainly by lawyers);
— legal support for business.
This list can be continued for quite a long time, since in each branch of law disputes arise between individuals, government agencies, business entities, for the resolution of which, in most cases, timely qualified legal assistance is required. The guarantee of the quality of legal services is not just the presence of higher legal education and knowledge of legislative norms, but also the ability to apply your knowledge in practice, legal experience.
Now let’s look at the types of legal services provided by various entities: lawyers, notaries and other lawyers specializing in specific issues. For a general idea, it is necessary to know the basic concepts associated with certain types of legal services.
So, let’s assume that you have contacted a lawyer in the Republic of Kazakhstan. The basic minimum that you should know is the following: in Kazakhstani legislation there is no concept of “advocacy services”, but there is a concept of “advocacy”, “lawyer” which are given in the Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan “On Advocacy”. In our opinion, they are generally understandable. According to Part 3 of Art. 1 of the above-mentioned Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan, “Advocacy is qualified legal assistance provided on a professional basis by lawyers in the manner prescribed by this Law, in order to protect and assist in the implementation of the rights, freedoms and legitimate interests of individuals, as well as the rights and legitimate interests of legal entities.” In accordance with Part 1 of Art. 7 of the Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan “On Advocacy Activity” “A lawyer is a citizen of the Republic of Kazakhstan who has a higher legal education, has received a license to engage in advocacy, is necessarily a member of the bar association and provides legal assistance on a professional basis within the framework of advocacy activities regulated by this Law.” Based on these concepts, we will derive the concept of “advocacy services”.
Thus, legal services are understood as those legal services that are provided on a professional basis by qualified lawyers and who have received a lawyer’s license to protect the rights, freedoms and interests of citizens and organizations, as well as to ensure access to justice.
Obtaining and assigning such a status is a complex, legislatively enshrined process, and in this case, it does not matter. It is only important to understand that, by turning to a lawyer for help, we, in theory, should receive qualified assistance from a professional lawyer.
Legal services provided by lawyers should not be confused with advisory services provided by employees of legal departments of organizations, employees of state authorities and local governments, participants and employees of organizations providing legal services, as well as individual entrepreneurs, notaries, or other persons who are specially authorized by law to conduct their professional activities.
Let us give specific examples of legal services in criminal and civil proceedings: representation in court; protection of the rights of suspects and accused during investigative actions (interrogation, presentation for identification, investigative experiment, etc.); assistance in drafting contracts, applications, complaints, petitions; legal assistance in concluding transactions; drafting of statutory documents of an organization, etc.
Unlike an attorney, lawyers do not have the right to act as a defense attorney in criminal proceedings, but they have the right to provide all other legal services.
Most people associate an attorney with a person who defends the rights of one of the parties in court. Indeed, the participation of an attorney in a trial is the main form of ensuring the defendant, plaintiff or respondent the right to judicial protection in accordance with the principle enshrined in the normative act that has the highest legal force in the territory of Kazakhstan – the Constitution of the Republic of Kazakhstan. A lawyer, acting as a representative of the plaintiff (defendant) or the defendant’s defense attorney, in accordance with the legislation of the Republic of Kazakhstan, has the right to request certificates, references and other necessary documents from state and public organizations in connection with the implementation of his professional activities.
In addition, a lawyer is obliged not to disclose information related to the provision of legal assistance by a lawyer to his client; even the fact of contacting a lawyer is already a lawyer’s secret and is not subject to disclosure.
As for notaries, the concept of “notary” is enshrined in the Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan “On Notaries”. Notaries are understood as a certain system of bodies, 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 notaries performing notarial acts.
Similarly, as for lawyers, for clarity, we will provide the concept of “notary services”. Notarial services are the activities of notaries themselves to certify legal facts (transactions, contracts, wills, etc.), formalize inheritance rights, certify documents and perform other notarial acts aimed at legally securing civil rights and obligations and preventing possible violations of them in the future.
We will give specific examples of notarial services: drafting documents, making copies of documents and extracts from them, etc. Only a citizen of the Republic of Kazakhstan who has reached the age of twenty-five, has a higher legal education, has at least two years of experience in the legal specialty, has completed a special internship and passed a qualification exam, works in a state notary office or is engaged in private practice and carries out notarial acts can be a notary.
In conclusion, I would like to say that the law firm SION & Partners, at the request of the client, can conduct a legal assessment of the correctness of the chosen strategy and tactics of the lawyer or attorney hired by you for any criminal or civil case, based on its experience and knowledge, and also help the client choose the right lawyer or attorney in any region.