Uniform state portal of legal education and free legal aid

History

2020

Creation acceleration

The Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation made the decision to reduce terms of creation of the uniform state portal of legal education and free legal aid and to make it available to users by 2022. It follows from the letter of the Minister of Justice Konstantin Chuychenko who was at disposal of the Komsomolskaya Pravda edition at the end of April, 2020. Earlier department planned that a system will be ready by 2022 and is brought into operation by 2023^[1].

In anticipation of creation of the portal in the Ministry of Justice studied experience of legal education of citizens of the different countries and also the corresponding best practices of regions of Russia, told TAdviser in department.

Thus, making use of the available successful experience of implementation of other platforms, the Ministry of Justice was guided first of all by features of the Russian legislation in the field of providing citizens with free legal aid and established practices of a citizens' appeal behind measures of the state and other social support and rendering this help, - informed TAdviser in the Ministry of Justice.

The uniform state portal of legal education and free legal aid will be available to users since 2022. The relevant decision was made by Ministry of Justice. (the photo is turii.com.ua)

Draft resolution of the government

As of the end of April, 2020 the draft resolution of the government "About the uniform state portal of legal education and free legal aid" is being approved at the federal executive authorities (FEA) and a number of the organizations, reported TAdviser in Ministry of Justice.

The document was sent for approval by everything FOIVAM, including the Ministry of Finance. It was preceded by public discussion and independent anti-corruption examination according to the results of which, speak in Ministry of Justice, notes and offers on the document to department did not arrive.

TAdviser studied the draft resolution of the government. According to the document, Ministry of Justice and Minfon within 4 months should submit the plan of complex actions for work of the portal till 2022 provided with financing for approval. In 2020 a system should be designed, in 2021 – is created, in 2022 – is brought into trial operation.

Also in the document the amount of financing of the specified works is determined. 413 million rubles by providing additional resources to the Ministry of Justice from the federal budget will be selected for them.

Besides, in the draft resolution the circle responsible for creation of the portal is designated and powers between them are distributed. Formation and development of a system, according to the document, will have to perform the Ministry of Justice. The government will coordinate all work which is carried out by department. The scientific center of legal information at Miniyusta will provide technical functioning of the portal. Also the organization will act as the operator of a system.

The draft resolution contains "regulations" on future portal. Follows from it that a system will function, having uniform organizational and methodical providing, relevant and authentic qualifiers and reference books. As a part of the portal there will be an opened and closed circuit. The order of maintaining the last will define Ministry of Justice. Future address - http://www.minjust.pravosoznaniem.ru also is given in provision. The information access of a system is going to be provided on a grant basis.

In the document particular purposes of creation of the portal, its appointment and structures which will use a system and to participate in the information exchange happening when forming content of the portal. In the document their powers and duties are designated.

The following tasks are set for the portal:

• free legal aid;
• promotion and explanation to citizens of need of observance of the duties, rules of the hostel, respect of the rights and legitimate interests of other persons;
• distribution and use of the information materials, available to perception, creating legal literacy and sense of justice of the population including in a printing, electronic, audiovisual form and also through mass media;
• increase in level of legal culture of citizens, in particular their awareness and legal literacy.

According to provision, will act as participants of information exchange:

• Ministry of Justice as body, responsible for formation and development of the portal;
• Scientific center of legal information at Miniyusta as the operator of a system;
• federal executive authorities and their territorial subdivisions;
• other federal government institutions;
• executive authorities of regions of Russia;
• participants of the state and non-state systems of free legal aid.

The Ministry of Justice within formation and development of the portal will execute:

• improvement of its structure, functions i contents;
• determination of structure and structure of the data which are subject to placement;
• monitoring of work of participants of information exchange with content of the portal;
• formation of statistic reports ob use of this information by them;
• coordination of work of participants of the state and non-state systems of free legal aid within rendering such service by them on the portal.

The scientific center of legal information at Miniyusta as the operator of the portal will be:

• perform technical maintenance and operation of a system, including technical support, management of access rights of users to the portal, control i monitoring of its functioning;
• provide requirements of information security.

The order of information exchange on the portal between its participants, according to provision, will define regulations of work of the portal which will approve the Ministry of Justice. It will designate how during information exchange it will be performed:

• placement and updating of data on the portal, including their features in the closed part of a system;
• authorized access of participants of information exchange to the portal;
• informing the Ministry of Justice by them about changes, including qualifiers and reference books of the portal affecting completeness and reliability of information which is placed/placed in a system, convenience of search and use of these data;
• rendering consulting support to participants of information exchange on methodical and technical issues;
• free legal aid by participants of the state and non-state systems of such service.

Collecting of offers from regions

In January the Federation Council (FC) appealed to regions of Russia to prepare offers on formation of the uniform state portal of legal education and free legal aid till February 27, 2020, Izvestia^[2] reported^[3]. The edition studied the letter of committee of the Federation Council on the constitutional legislation and the state construction, sent to heads of the supreme executive bodies of regions of Russia.

Creation of the uniform portal of legal education and free legal aid reaches new level, the member of the committee of the Federation Council on the constitutional legislation and the state construction Irina Rukavishnikova said to Izvestia. She is responsible for preparation of the regional concept of the website.

We decided to find out opinion of regions of Russia on the platform at a stage of its development. For this purpose the committee of the Federation Council on the constitutional legislation and the state construction also sent the corresponding letter to all regions. We wait for the answer to it until the end of February, then we will generalize the acquired information and in March we will submit the full concept of the portal taking into account opinion of regions, - Irina Rukavishnikova informed.

In each region of Russia, according to her, will be defined responsible for work with the portal. They will monitor contents in partitions of the platform of up-to-date and reliable information.

Senators by that moment already created the preliminary concept of the portal, having worked it with the key ministries. The portal will have a layered design with federal and regional segments. At the same time it should be simple in use. It is supposed that everyone, regardless of age, education level and legal literacy will be able to find on it necessary information. On the portal it will also be possible to get the state and non-state legal support on different branches of law in difficult life situations.

Subject of creation of the uniform portal of legal education and free legal aid - one of the key Federation Councils in work of committee on the constitutional legislation and state construction this year, the chairman Andrey Klishas said Izvestia it.

It is sure that the portal will organically fit into a paradigm of digitalization of all spheres of economy and public life of Russia, - Andrey Klishas told Izvestia.

In December, 2019 as notes the edition, the Chairman of the Federation Council Valentina Matviyenko sent the prime minister Dmitry Medvedev the letter on support of creation of the portal. In its study, according to the edition, in addition to Ministry of Justice and the Federation Council, are engaged the Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications and the Ministry of Finance.

Earlier, Izvestia writes, in Ministry of Justice paid attention to existence of a set of the similar commercial systems where the ordinary person in attempt to find the necessary document all the time gets on the paid page, without reaching the text of the regulatory legal act. Thus, according to the ministry, the developed system will allow citizens to save money. The legal community supported the idea of Ministry of Justice, but reminded that at the state level it is put forward not the first year. Experts noted that the project will become a big step to increase in legal literacy of the population, however work of the portal will strongly depend on the one who will begin to give consultations.

2019: The offer to include a system in the Digital Economy national program

In March, 2019 the Ministry of Justice sent to the government of the offer on creation of the portal of legal education and free legal aid and its inclusion in the actions plan of the federal draft "Digital Public Administration" of the national program "Digital Economy"^[4]. The Deputy Minister of Justice Denis Novak reported about it on September 11, 2019 during the meeting which took place in the Federation Council.

The member of the committee of the Federation Council on the constitutional legislation and the state construction Irina Rukavishnikova informed on the carried-out work with each region of Russia. The Federation Council received offers on structure of the portal, its contents, information support. The Federation Council transferred all recommendations to Ministry of Justice for acceptance in attention by preparation of technical specifications.

Denis Novak and Irina Rukavishnikova also told about some details to future work of the portal. According to Novak, he will be integrated with different databases, including notary offices and Chambers of Advocates and also with the uniform portal of state services.

It is supposed to fill the portal with information which will be clear and available to the person who does not have legal knowledge. All contents of the portal are going to be broken on subject and on target groups: children, youth, large families, people of advanced age, persons with limited opportunities of health, preferential categories of citizens, etc, - Irina Rukavishnikova noted.

At the same time it is expected that the information resource will integrate the best practices of regions of Russia. For example, the uniform interactive map reflecting legal resources of each region will be created, the possibility of interactive acceptances and online consultations, uses of standard document forms and submission of official statements is provided in state bodies. Implementation of function of a feedback is discussed with users through a quality assessment system of the rendered legal aid. In plans also opening of a hot line and providing Internet making an appointment to an opportunity.

The service should respond quickly to the requests for the solution of different legal situations, including in the online mode, – Irina Rukavishnikova emphasized.

Besides, it indicated the need creations of simple navigation which will facilitate to users process of search of contacts of the organizations and specialists rendering free legal aid.

Our tasks - to create a resource which will enjoy confidence of citizens, to provide high-quality and professional legal aid, - Denis Novak noted.

2018: Creation initiative

In January the Deputy Minister of Justice Denis Novak held a meeting on use of the innovation approaches during creation of the uniform state portal of legal education and free legal aid^[5].

The Ministry of Justice suggested participants of the meeting to provide the vision of a uniform informational legal portal which would be useful to citizens and assisted, concerning legal advice bureau and providing any reference materials, - the board member of association of lawyers of Russia Stanislav Alexandrov told.

It is supposed that on the portal there will be a designer of legal documents and also the automated services of legal education. The portal, according to Denis Novak is focused, will be first of all on the ordinary citizen who does not have legal knowledge.

Contents of the portal

In work of the uniform state portal of legal education and free legal aid the offers on maintenance and structure which arrived from regions of Russia will be considered, the First Deputy Chairman of the Committee of the Federation Council on the constitutional legislation and the state construction Irina Rukavishnikova said during the seminar devoted to legal knowledge of citizens which took place on March 26, 2020 in the Federation Council^[6].

The Deputy Minister of Justice of the Russian Federation Denis Novak shared some details about future device of the portal.

According to the developed project, a system will consist of two blocks: information and interactive. The information block will contain the reference information, data on regulatory legal acts, a news feed of the legal industry and also data on standard problems which citizens, and methods of their solution face. In particular in this block it is going to place informative information in the form of infographics, texts and videos on legal issues which citizens face. The interactive map of the legal framework on which trustworthy agents of the legal industry will be marked should become one of sections of the block: state bodies, notary offices, the legal centers and lawyer boards, Denis Novak told.

On the portal it is going to place interactive maps of courts, points of free legal aid, law enforcement agencies, all participants of the state and non-state systems of free legal aid. Also in plans to use the special module "Legal Assistant". The speech about the chat-bot helping to be guided with content of the portal. These opportunities will be implemented in the block of the Legal Education portal, - reported TAdviser in the Ministry of Justice.

The interactive block, according to Novak, will provide rendering free legal aid and to work in an active mode of interaction with citizens. Within this block the citizens of preferential categories having the right to free legal aid will be able to consult online or to register in acceptance to the specialist in the legal issue interesting them.

Free legal aid will appear in the volume provided by the federal law "About Free Legal Aid in the Russian Federation" and also according to regulatory legal acts of that region of Russia where the citizen directly lives, - explained TAdviser in the Ministry of Justice.

Lawyers within the portal will be able to perform preparation of various documents for citizens, in particular statements and complaints, noted in the ministry. Also the portal will give to the citizen an opportunity of conclusion of an agreement with the lawyer, drawing up the statement of claim and its giving in court in those regions where in courts statements online are already adopted, - reported TAdviser in Ministry of Justice.

TAdviser tried to learn in the Ministry of Justice as on the portal lawyers for providing legal aid will be selected. However the relevant information to the edition in the ministry was not provided. Also in it did not give any explanations about what government institutions will provide documents how and by what principle on the portal. Department referred to the fact that the list of participants of information exchange of the portal and an order of the organization of legal informing and education and also free legal aid will be just defined by them when developing regulations of work of the portal. Such approach, are sure of the ministry, will exclude placement cases on the portal of information on the persons rendering free legal aid beyond the scope of the Russian legislation.

At the same time, that special attention will be paid to relevance and reliability of content of the portal in Ministry of Justice do not doubt any more. Together with the interested federal public authorities the ministry will provide timely updating of its information.

Expediency of creation

Need of emergence of the portal is caused by the fact that information in the Russian help systems of law not always of an ischerpyvayushch and is relevant. Besides, these reference books work at a paid basis, - told TAdviser in the Ministry of Justice on April 20, 2020.

The lack of available and reliable information opens a scope for unfair legal practice that in general has an adverse effect on availability and quality of the rendered legal aid, - drew the attention of TAdviser in the Ministry of Justice.

The remote format of interaction is also necessary because regions of Russia not always properly provide implementation of basic provisions of the federal law "About Free Legal Aid in the Russian Federation". At the same time in a number of Russian regions there are hardly accessible and sparsely populated areas.

You should not forget that the portal will also serve as method of informing citizens on methods of receiving by them free legal aid and their orientation on the most important legal situations, - told TAdviser in the Ministry of Justice.

Notes