GAPS IN THE LEGAL REGULATION OF OBTAINING INFORMATION ON A LAWYER’S REQUEST

The article is devoted to the consideration of topical issues of obtaining by citizens and other subjects of information relations, information on relevant requests. The importance of the role of the institution of the legal profession in the field of protecting the rights and freedoms of citizens and legislative regulation of obtaining information on a lawyer's request is highlighted. It is noted that a response to a lawyer's request must be provided within a legally defined and compressed timeframe, and failure to provide information or providing incomplete information to a lawyer's request is punishable as an administrative offense. Analysis of scientific research in the field of advocacy allows us to conclude that the issue of gaps in the legal regulation of obtaining information on a lawyer's request has not yet been studied by domestic legal scholars. The article analyzes the list of subjects, defined by law, who are obliged to provide information to lawyer inquiries. Identified and highlighted those subjects in respect of which such a duty is not legally defined or is not properly regulated by the rules of law. Possible ways of resolving the legal uncertainty of this issue are proposed. The Law of Ukraine «On the Bar and Advocate Activity» defines a lawyer's request as a written appeal of a lawyer to a public authority, local self-government body, their professional and official persons, forms of enterprises and organizations, regardless of ownership and subordination, public associations on the provision of copies of documents required a lawyer to provide legal assistance to a client. The specified determines that state authorities, local self-government bodies, authorities and officials, governments of organizations, organizations, public associations, the required lawyer's request requires the lawyer to provide relevant information, copies except with limited access and copies of documents containing information with limited access. The authors analyze the legislative and legal norms that define the concepts: enterprise, institution, organization and manager. It was found that the normatively formed definitions according to which a society, institution and public association are defined through the concept of «organization», and therefore are the appropriate types of organization. It is established that such entities as cooperatives, associations, corporations, consortiums, concerns, etc., which the legislator does not refer to enterprises, institutions and organizations, may not be forced to provide information at the request of a lawyer due to legal uncertainty and due to constitutional requirements according to which no one can be forced to do what is not provided by law. The authors propose to clearly define the concept of «organization» and propose an appropriate classification of organizations. All existing enterprises, consortia, associations, cooperatives, etc. should be defined precisely through the concept of «organization» and refer to a certain type of organization. Amendments to the Law of Ukraine «On Advocacy and Advocacy Activity» have been proposed, which will make it possible to eliminate the existing shortcomings of the legal regulation of obtaining information at the request of a lawyer.