Lawyers risk becoming negotiators between offender and judge or prosecutor, CCCEC says

The lawyers run the risks of becoming negotiators between the offender and judge or prosecutor in the process of solving the case, says a study of the phenomenon of corruption among lawyers carried out by the Department for Prevention, Analytics and Anticorruption Programs of the Center for Combating Corruption and Economic Crime (CCCEC), cited by Info-Prim Neo. The study is based on cases investigated by the Center. It shows that corruption develops among the major players of the legal system, including lawyers. During 2006 – the first quarter of 2008, the CCCEC has opened 26 legal cases against lawyers. Most of these cases (18 cases of 68%) have been instituted under article 326 “Misuse of Power” of the Penal Code. The lawyers were investigated for asking money from clients for solving the cases. They told the clients that the money was to be given to judges, prosecutors, investigation officers, etc. There were opened three cases over abuse of power, two cases over forging of documents, two cases over misappropriation in rather large amounts and one case over active corruption. In three cases instituted by the CCCEC, the damage caused was assessed at about 2.1 million lei. The settlement of cases by influencing the court to take a decision in favor of certain persons or the motivation of prosecutors to demand milder punishments or to stop prosecuting the offenders are practically the easiest and fastest ways of resolving legal cases, the study says. It is rather difficult to expose and prove corruption acts committed by lawyers, prosecutors or judges given that the offenses are judged in the system where they work, officials of the CCCEC say. No lawyer investigated for corruption has been imprisoned so far. The courts passed judgments in only four of the 26 cases opened. In three cases, the offenders were acquitted and only in one case the lawyer was found guilty of misuse of power and fined 20,000 lei. According to the Public Opinion Barometer’s data for the past two years, more that a half of the population considers that corruption is a rather frequent phenomenon among the main players of the national legal system (judges, policemen, lawyers).