What Can an Independent Lawyer do in Cuba?

What Can an Independent Lawyer do in Cuba? / Laritza Diversent
Posted on June 14, 2014

In Cuba, professionals can't work for themselves in the specialty in
which they graduate. Legal counseling and consulting are not recognized
as self-employed activities, the only actions that a lawyer can perform
independently. The few that make this decision have to do it for free.

It's also difficult to form an autonomous association. The red tape
required to legalize a non-profit organization assures that the State
has absolute control over it.

To these limitations economic dependence is also added. The lawyer who
doesn't work for the State doesn't earn anything. In order to survive,
in a system where the economic crisis is permanent, independent lawyers
collect extra honoraria, even when the regulation on the practice of
advocacy, among other causes, considers it a serious shortcoming to
receive honoraria that are not established or are better than those
officially approved, whether in cash or in kind. A double morality is
imposed by these conditions on the practice of advocacy in Cuba, and
with it comes total submission to the system.

See Artículo 59.3 inciso c, Resolución No. 142/84 "Regulation on the
practice of Advocacy and the National Organization of Collective Law Firms."

From Jurisconsulto de Cuba, by Laritza Diversent

Translated by Regina Anavy

9 June 2014

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