ADVOCATES OF ARMENIA MAY DOUBLE

Lragir.am
19 May 06

The number of Armenian advocates may double in 2006, if all the
applicants of the Chamber of Advocates pass the first round of exams.

In Armenia, says Yenok Azaryan, a member of the Chamber of Advocates,
there are 483 advocates. 382 have applied for membership to the
chamber.

In the upcoming months the qualification board will examine the
documents of the applicants. If these are compliant, in two months
the applicants will be notified of the day of the examination, and
on passing the exams they will become members of the Chamber. Yenok
Azaryan says new advocates were needed to improve the reputation of
the profession and their qualification. According to him, there are
advocates who disgrace their profession, act as a second prosecutor
for a citizen, whereas their job is to defend a person’s rights.

“A weak person cannot defend another person’s rights. No process of
self-filtering is going on. Since we cannot jettison advocates, who
are disgraced and disgrace others, we should at least try to improve
the quality by engaging new people,” says Yenok Azaryan.

To develop the sphere and improve the quality, Yenok Azaryan and other
members of the Chamber of Advocates have set up a new association of
advocates. The association will have the same goals as the Chamber of
Advocates had been established. There is implicit dissatisfaction in
his speech with the activities of the chamber, and although another
organizer of the association Cromwell Grigoryan says there will be
no rivalry between the Chamber and the association, obviously there
is no logical explanation other than rivalry, when the members of
an association establish another association for the same function
and aims.