During the 2018 calendar year, 597 complaints and appeals were submitted to the Presidium of the Bar Association of the Republic of Azerbaijan. As a result of the preliminary investigation by the Presidium on the complaints and appeals, 323 (54,1%) applications were not subject to disciplinary proceedings, since there were grounds for 274 (45,9%) complaints and appeals, the disciplinary proceedings were initiated and they were referred to the Lawyers' Disciplinary Commission for further investigation. 33 (12%) of these appeals were submitted by governmental bodies, 14 (5,1%) by non-governmental organizations and 227 (82,8%) by citizens. On 92 (33, 6 %) disciplinary proceedings, it was found out that the provisions of the Law of the Republic of Azerbaijan on “Lawyers and legal profession”, other legislative acts, the Charter of the rules on conduct of lawyers, as well as the norms of the lawyer ethics, had been violated by the lawyers while performing their professional duties, on 72 (26.3%) disciplinary proceedings it was impossible to assess as the result of the investigation, no violation found in 58 (21,2%) cases, the proceedings were terminated on 17 (6,2%) disciplinary proceedings and suspended on 1 (0,7%) disciplinary proceedings.

On the 71 disciplinary proceedings that the violations were found by the Presidium, preliminary notifications without disciplinary sanctions were imposed for the 29 (40,8%) considering the nature of the complaint and the appeal, the measure of infringement and other circumstances as well as remarks for the 9 (12,7%) disciplinary proceedings, reprimands for the 15 (21,1%) disciplinary proceedings and suspension of advocacy activity for a certain period of time for the 12 (16,9%) disciplinary proceedings were imposed.

In addition, on 6 (8,4%) disciplinary proceedings, since there were grounds for the exclusion from membership, in order to resolve the issue, the Presidium of the Bar Association made a decision to suspend the activities of the lawyers before referring to the court and until the court's decision on that matter came into force.

The decisions were made on 5 out of the last 6 disciplinary proceedings due to the non-payment of membership fees to the Presidium for more than six months without a valid reason, while the decision was made on the other disciplinary proceeding because of the basis of the complaint filed by the citizen.

Apparently, no decision has been taken in 2018 to exclude any lawyer from the membership of the Association on the basis of appeals addressed by the governmental bodies.

For more info: Statistical information on disciplinary cases (for the year 2018)