Ukrainian legislation is often compared to a dense forest – extensive, voluminous and difficult to understand even for experienced specialists. For the average citizen, finding an answer to a legal question on their own sometimes seems almost impossible. In the age of the Internet, when access to information is limitless, it would seem that you can find a solution to any problem in a few clicks. But a legal case is not just a search, but accuracy, understanding and the right approach. From divorce to inheritance, from criminal cases to disputes with government agencies, life presents many legal challenges to people. And this is where it is important to find the right specialist who will help overcome these difficulties. How not to get lost among numerous offers, what to pay attention to when choosing a lawyer and how to avoid disappointment?
Lawyers of the “Repeshko and Partners” Bar Association share recommendations that can be the key to successfully solving your legal issues.
The first thing that comes to people’s minds when they need legal help is to seek advice from acquaintances, relatives or friends. And it really works, but it doesn’t always live up to expectations. After all, the lawyer who will be recommended to you with the best reviews may simply not specialize in your category of cases. For example, if you need help with inheritance matters and a lawyer excels at resolving business disputes, you will unfortunately have to start your search all over again.
If the recommendation hits the mark and you find a specialist who deals with your issue, that’s great! But in order not to rely only on luck or someone else’s experience, let’s figure out how to approach the choice of a lawyer from scratch and find a specialist who will become your indispensable ally in legal matters.
How many times in our life have we heard the phrase – “go to a lawyer!”, but for some reason only lawyers go to court in movies. Is it a lawyer or a lawyer? Who to choose? Let’s start with the fact that a lawyer is a lawyer, a prosecutor, a judge, and a specialist in the Pension Fund. It’s like doctors – all doctors are doctors, but a cardiologist, surgeon or dentist are specialists in a narrow specialization, although they have a general idea of medicine from a professional point of view.
As for the provision of legal services to ordinary citizens, there can really be a choice here – a lawyer or a lawyer? Both of these persons are specialists in the field of law. But in many respects everything will depend on the problem that needs to be solved, or the question that you want to hear the answer to.
Let’s give a specific example. There is a law firm in the very center of the city (where rent is not cheap). Well, let it exist, if only for one thing. Indignant clients of this firm began to appear in the city, who decided to turn to lawyers for help. The point was that the firm lured clients to itself with free consultations. Well, let’s face it – who doesn’t like to get something for free?! Although lawyers believe that a person does not value the recommendation for which he did not pay money. Moreover, the larger the amount of money paid, the more valuable the consultation for the client. But it is possible that sometimes you can consult free of charge, but those who are quite far from legal practice and conducting cases in court sat at such free consultations in the mentioned firm.
The person was promised “mountains of gold” (even if from a legal point of view the case is completely hopeless) and made to sign a contract according to which money was paid in favor of the company. Regarding the amount of payment, the amounts were different – 15 thousand. UAH, 20 thousand UAH, 40 thousand UAH (and this is still at the pre-war or beginning of the war rates). In the future, if it was not possible to do without a lawyer, the firm hired a lawyer for a specific case under a separate contract. At the same time, if the lawyer looked at the documents, was horrified and said that everything should be done wrong or that you should not do anything – nothing will help. At the same time, the management of the company said – write more papers, pretend to be active. Of course, after that, normal lawyers said – “goodbye!”.
The contract itself, signed by the client, was drawn up in such a way that you will not get the money back, and you will not make any claims – the content provided for considerable fines from the client. There are clients who were even more disappointed – the company took the original real estate documents and demanded five hundred US dollars only for their return. More than one application was written to the district police department based on these specialists. As far as it became known, the office of the mentioned “specialists” is not working at the moment, but they still had time to work fruitfully for their own benefit for several years.
So, a lawyer can act as an employee of a law firm, an individual entrepreneur (FOP), or in general as someone who is popularly called a “reshala”. The latter is basically the same as giving money to the best person in the middle of the street. Such “specialists” have no official registration, no tax payment, and no agreement with the client. It is impossible to prove what you transferred to such a person and for what reason.
Regarding the law firm or FOP. These persons have official registration, pay taxes (well, at least they should), and a written contract is concluded with them. We note right away that not all firms or FOPs are like the one in the given example. There are indeed those who honestly and honestly work for the benefit of the client. The main thing when applying is to find out how long the mentioned subjects have been working (the longer the better), to what extent the office space corresponds to the stated possibilities (an international firm in the basement of a high-rise building on the outskirts of the city gives some thought), to Google reviews on the Internet. The latter has two sides – on the one hand, you can find any information, including negative reviews of dissatisfied customers, on the other hand, no one canceled positive reviews for money or from acquaintances-friends. But the main thing is the category of cases that a lawyer can deal with.
It should be noted that, according to the current legislation, only a lawyer can deal with criminal cases. As for civil cases, for which the majority of citizens apply, lawyers can participate in court only in minor cases.
In the civil process, the following are considered insignificant:
1) cases in which the price of the claim does not exceed thirty amounts of the subsistence minimum for able-bodied persons (for 2025 – UAH 90,840);
2) cases of minor complexity, recognized by the court as insignificant, except for cases that are subject to consideration only according to the rules of general legal proceedings, and cases in which the price of the claim exceeds eighty amounts of the subsistence minimum for able-bodied persons (214,720 UAH);
3) cases concerning the collection of alimony, increase and decrease of its amount, termination of the collection of alimony, payment of additional expenses for the child, indexation of alimony, change of the method of their collection, if such claims are not related to establishing or disputing paternity (maternity);
4) divorce cases;
5) cases on the protection of consumer rights, in which the price of the claim does not exceed sixty amounts of the subsistence minimum for able-bodied persons (161,040 UAH).
Within the framework of administrative proceedings, an appeal against the decision of a subject of power, on the basis of which he can claim the recovery of funds in an amount not exceeding fifteen times the subsistence minimum for able-bodied persons (40,260 hryvnias), will be considered insignificant.
At the same time, disputes regarding the appeal of the decisions, actions and inaction of the subject of authority, if the plaintiff also stated claims for compensation for damage caused by such decisions, actions or inaction, in an amount exceeding sixty (161,040 UAH) of the subsistence minimum for able-bodied persons , will be considered according to the rules of general legal proceedings.
However, they have the right to advise on any legal issue, but the value of advice from a person who does not go to court on this category of cases is questionable. Although not everything is so simple. Sometimes lawyers, in addition to a certificate of the right to practice law, have such firms or sole proprietorships for tax optimization, which is not prohibited by law. The most important thing when working with these entities is to carefully read the contract you are signing. After all, in any cases and troubles that arise, you will have only one lever of influence – to go to court.
A lawyer (who works both individually and as part of a legal association) is a completely different matter. In contrast to a law firm or a non-profit organization, a lawyer can be an individual who has a full higher legal education, speaks the state language according to the level determined in accordance with Law of Ukraine “On Ensuring the Functioning of the Ukrainian Language as a State”, has at least two years of experience in the field of law, passed a qualifying exam, completed an internship (except for the cases established by this Law), took the oath of a lawyer of Ukraine and received a certificate of the right to practice law.
In addition to the qualification exam that lawyers take to become lawyers, there is a mandatory professional development for them. From January 1, 2025, the number of mandatory hours during which lawyers must improve their professional qualifications has increased. It is 15 hours per year. If the lawyer stopped his activity for some time, then in the future he will need to undergo a special training course in case of renewal of the right to practice law. Thus, when choosing a lawyer, you have a guarantee that your problem will be dealt with by a really high-class specialist (and not for law firms, and not for FOPs, duties that do not exist before professional development).
However, it should be noted that lawyers are also different. A qualified specialist does not deal with everything in a row, because it is physically impossible to know everything well. Lawyers usually specialize: some handle only criminal cases, some only civil cases, some never take on tax disputes, some deal with cases from different industries, and some work exclusively with legal entities. However, all lawyers who have a valid certificate of the right to practice law in real time are registered in the Unified Register of Lawyers of Ukraine. The register is freely available at the link – https://erau.unba.org.ua/. It is from the indicated register that it is possible to find out exactly how many years this or that lawyer has been practicing law, as well as the address of his official workplace and telephone numbers.
Reviews about the lawyer’s activities on the Internet have also not been canceled by anyone, but the same rules apply here that we have already talked about in relation to lawyers.
But still, the value of a lawyer is his responsibility to the client. Unlike a lawyer, a lawyer can be brought to disciplinary responsibility with quite significant consequences. Article 36 of the Law of Ukraine “On Advocacy and Advocacy” provides that anyone who is aware of the facts of such behavior has the right to apply to the qualification and disciplinary commission of the bar with a statement (complaint) about the behavior of a lawyer, which may be grounds for disciplinary liability.
The application (complaint) against the lawyer is addressed to the qualification and disciplinary commission of the bar at the address of the lawyer’s place of work, specified in the Unified Register of Lawyers of Ukraine. An application (complaint) can be submitted both by a single person (individually) and by a group of people (collectively).
If a disciplinary offense is established in the lawyer’s actions, he may be held disciplinary liable and one of the following disciplinary sanctions may be applied to him:
- warning;
- suspension of the right to practice law for a period of one month to one year;
- for attorneys of Ukraine – deprivation of the right to practice as an attorney with subsequent exclusion from the Unified Register of Attorneys of Ukraine;
- for lawyers of foreign countries – exclusion from the Unified Register of Lawyers of Ukraine.
One more thing – a professional lawyer never gives a 100% guarantee of solving your problem. After all, he knows better than anyone what may or may not happen during your cooperation. In the legal sphere, many things do not depend on the lawyer: whether or not the personal case was kept in the archive, whether the judge made a decision in your favor or not, whether the defendant objected to your lawsuit or fully agreed with it, what exactly was the answer given by BTI and what exactly did the expert write based on the results of the investigation research etc. No lawyer in their right mind would guarantee you these points. And also – you pay the lawyer not for the result (although every lawyer taking on a case dreams of winning it), you pay – for the process, for help. After all, sometimes it happens that the impeccable winning line of defense built by the lawyer is destroyed by one word or action of the client.
Sometimes it is possible to hear that a lawyer is expensive, a lawyer is cheaper. Yes, there is a certain sense in this, but the lawyer pays annual fees for the self-government of the bar, is obliged to spend his own working time on professional development and work selflessly, so as not to receive a complaint from the client about his activities, which can lead to the loss of the certificate. A lawyer, in his turn, as well as a lawyer, pays taxes, and can be sued by a dissatisfied client. But what is it like to sue a lawyer – you understand yourself: where he will go to court himself, you will pay another lawyer.
So, who exactly to choose is up to you. But a qualified lawyer never insists on one or another option, but only talks about the consequences of the choice. The choice itself always depends on the client (because let’s be honest – sometimes clients don’t even tell the lawyer everything they should).
