According to the Ten Opinions on Safeguarding Lawyers' Practice Rights in accordance with the Law jointly issued by the Supreme People's Procuratorate, the Ministry of Justice, and the All China Lawyers Association (hereinafter referred to as the "Ten Opinions"), the Shanghai Procuratorate recently signed the "Implementation Opinions on Implementing the Ten Opinions on Safeguarding Lawyers' Practice Rights in accordance with the Law" (hereinafter referred to as the "Implementation Opinions") with the Municipal Bureau of Justice and the Municipal Lawyers Association in combination with local conditions.
The Implementation Opinions adhere to the combination of principles and creativity, taking the Ten Opinions as the main line and foundation, and fully considering the problems found in the protection of lawyer's practicing rights in the city. They have refined and implemented the establishment of a communication and coordination mechanism, the legal protection of lawyer's right to know, the right to review papers, the right to meet, the legal listening to lawyer's opinions, the standardized handling of cases hindering the supervision of lawyer's practicing rights, and the improvement of the level of lawyer's practicing rights protection.
The Implementation Opinions further clarify the establishment of a communication and exchange mechanism between the prosecution and the law enforcement, comprehensively construct a diversified grading model, strictly regulate the grading method and processing time limit, and achieve the goal of "reading as much as possible". In order to fully protect the rights of lawyers, the Implementation Opinions adhere to the principle of "seeing as much as possible and hearing as much as possible". It is stipulated that if there are significant differences in the characterization of a case, such as the defense lawyer's innocence defense, the procuratorial organs should generally listen to the lawyer's opinions in person in a specialized lawyer meeting room and make a record; In carrying out compliance work for the involved enterprises, it is also necessary to strengthen communication with proxy lawyers and carefully listen to their opinions and suggestions.
The Implementation Opinions require that the procuratorial organs, when handling cases of confession and punishment, should ensure full coverage by defense lawyers or on duty lawyers, and fully implement synchronous audio and video recording of the entire process of confession and punishment witnessing and signing, and shall not bypass the arrangement of on duty lawyers to witness and sign on behalf of defense lawyers. For cases where defense lawyers are absent without reason for multiple times to witness and sign contracts, and duty lawyers fail to fulfill their duties, the procuratorial organs should report to the Municipal Bureau of Justice and the Municipal Bar Association.
The Implementation Opinions emphasize that the procuratorial organs should establish and improve a dual filing system with the judicial administrative organs, regularly report the handling of cases to the Municipal Judicial Bureau and the Municipal Lawyers Association, and further improve the handling of cases that hinder the supervision of lawyers' practicing rights.