Association of Private Enforcement Officers Is Ready for More Self-Governance
Oct 01, 2018 | Justice
September 05, 2018
Original in Ukrainian:Yuridicheskaya Praktika The second session of the III International Forum on Enforcement Proceedings "PEO as a Business Project" started. The moderator of the session is the Senior Partner of L.I. GROUP Law Company Mykola Kovalchuk. According to him, this is an extremely important event for the entire legal market, providing an opportunity to discuss all topical issues. "The institute of PEOs has been introduced in Ukraine a year ago, and this year we can share market problems with government officials. This bilateral dialogue is extremely important," Mr. Kovalchuk emphasized. Vice-President of the National Chamber of Judicial Officers (France) Patrick Safar told about guarantees of financial and procedural independence in the work of private enforcement officers of France. He drew attention to the so-called hybrid status of enforcement officers in France. In addition to being independent, they have certain responsibilities. While performing the functions of the state, the enforcement officers work as independent agents, their activities are supervised by the Ministry of Finance of France. According to Mr. Safar, this profession was among the so-called free (liberal) back in the Middle Ages. Enforcement officers in recent years have upgraded their qualifications and were vested with additional powers. They bear civil (for any damage caused), criminal (for forgery of documents) and disciplinary (for observance of certain ethical rules) responsibility. According to the expert from France, the private enforcement officers are self-employed persons by their status, their offices function as non-profit structures. It is possible to carry out their functions at the place of residence at appellate courts, and the number of enforcement officers is controlled by the Ministry of Justice. As for monopolization, there is a certain tariff grid, which is envisaged by the law. According to the code of professional ethics, enforcement officers are not authorized to increase tariffs. In conclusion, Patrick Safar stressed that French enforcement (judicial) officers should be independent and impartial to any of the parties, they may not exceed their powers.
The prospects of joint work of private and state enforcement officers were analyzed by Igor Nikolayev, a legal advisor to the Center for Commercial Law, expert of the EU “PRAVO-Justice” Project He compared the profession with notary activities: at first, the work of private notaries was also met with extreme caution. But now the customer of notarial services can address to either private or public notary without any problems. Eventually, it will be the same with private and state enforcement officers, because their work is basically relying on the sole mission – successful enforcement of court decisions.
Mr. Nikolayev emphasized that a private enforcement officer is not something like a freelance artist, expressing regret that the Association of Private Enforcement Officers is not independent enough for the Ministry of Justice to give up micro-management so far, but hopes that the situation will change soon. "Cooperation between state and private enforcement officers should stay within the limits of the current legislation, but cooperation and competition (in the positive sense of the word) should be targeting the sole result - enforcement of court decisions. We must achieve that a court decision is inevitably enforced", Igor Nikolayev summed up.