The Features of Procedural and Non-Procedural Forms of the Counsel’s Activity and Their Differentiation

Abstract

Introduction: the proper disclosure of the legal status of the counsel is impossible without investigating the legal nature of the procedural and non-procedural forms of his activities, in particular, in the context of their differentiation. This distinction allows not only finding out the specifics of the legal status of the counsel when providing legal assistance in a particular type of procedural proceedings, but also separating the status of the counsel from the status of other persons who are entitled to provide legal services. The purpose of the paper is to reveal the essence of the procedural and non-procedural forms of the counsel’s activity in the aspect of his providing legal assistance. The main author’s tasks are: to reveal the essence of the classification of the legal status of an individual by nature (content) in the context of its impact on the status of the counsel; to analyze the legal nature of the procedural and non-procedural forms of the counsel’s activity; to establish the practical value in differentiating such forms of the lawyer’s activity and to find out the relationship between them. Methods: the methodological framework for the research is a set of methods of scientific knowledge, among which the main ones are the dialectical method, the method of system analysis and synthesis. Results: the paper indicates the existence of a general (constitutional), professional and individual legal status of the counsel, which is characterized by the possibility of distinguishing the procedural and non-procedural forms of the counsel’s activity. Conclusions: the author argues for the position that the individual status of the counsel is characterized by the possibility of distinguishing the procedural and non-procedural forms of the counsel’s activity when providing legal assistance by him. At the same time, regardless of whether the counsel implements the procedural or non-procedural form of his activity, he retains the professional status of the counsel, and such a person should be properly referred to as the defense counsel, representative counsel, or the term “counsel”, for example, when providing legal assistance to a witness.