The Constitutional Court starts to examine a case on the rights of defence counsel in administrative offence cases
The Constitutional Court starts to examine a case regarding compliance of Section 185(4) of the Law on Administrative Liability with the fourth sentence of Section 92 of the Constitution of the Republic of Latvia.
The contested provision stipulates that a complaint addressed to a court against a decision in an administrative offence case shall be signed by the applicant. If the complaint is submitted by a representative on behalf of the applicant, he or she shall append a relevant power of attorney or another document to the complaint which attests to the authorisation of the representative to submit the complaint.
Two natural persons, being held administratively liable, have applied to the Constitutional Court. It appears from the materials of the merged case that the applicants have authorised defence counsels to provide legal assistance in the administrative offence cases. The defence counsels lodged complaints with the courts on behalf of the applicants against the decisions taken by the authorities. However, the courts refused to accept the complaints because a defence counsel of an adult natural person did not have the right to sign and lodge a complaint with the court.
In the view of the applicants, the contested norm, insofar as it does not provide for the right of the defence counsel of a person held administratively liable to sign and submit a complaint to the court, does not comply with the right to assistance of a lawyer included in the fourth sentence of Section 92 of the Constitution.
The Constitutional Court examines the case in written proceedings. The decision must be adopted within 30 days, at the latest, after the Constitutional Court’s session.
Related Case: 2023-42-01