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1123 OF 2007
(January 22)
Official Journal No. 46.519 of 22 January 2007
COLOMBIA CONGRESS
By which the Disciplinary Code of the Advocate is established.
THE CONGRESS OF THE REPUBLIC
DECRETA:
GENERAL PART.
GUIDING PRINCIPLES.
ARTICLE 1o. HUMAN DIGNITY. Whoever intervenes in disciplinary action will be treated with respect due to the inherent dignity of the human being.
ARTICLE 2o. OWNERSHIP. It is up to the State, through the Disciplinary Chambers of the Superior and Sectional Councils of the Judiciary, to know of the processes that the commission of any of the faults provided for in the law will advance against lawyers in the exercise of their profession.
The disciplinary action is independent of any other that may arise from the fault commission.
ARTICLE 3o. LEGALITY. The lawyer will only be investigated and disciplined in a disciplinary manner for behaviors that are described as lacking in the law in force at the time of its realization and in accordance with the rules laid down in this code or the rules that modify.
ARTICLE 4. ANTIJURIDIC. An attorney shall incur an anti-legal misconduct when, with his conduct, he or she affects, without justification, any of the duties enshrined in this code.
ARTICLE 5o. CULPABILITY. In disciplinary matters only punishment can be imposed for faults made with guilt. All forms of objective liability are eradicated.
ARTICLE 6o. PROCESS. The disciplinary subject shall be investigated by a competent official and with formal and material compliance with the rules determining the rituality of the process, in the terms of this code.
ARTICLE 7o. FAVORABILITY. In disciplinary matters, the permissive or favorable law, even if later, will be applied in preference to the restrictive or unfavorable law. This principle also applies to those who are complying with the sanction.
The law that establishes jurisdiction and jurisdiction or determines what is concerning the substantiation and rituality of the process shall apply from the moment it enters into effect, except as determined by law.
ARTICLE 8o. PRESUMPTION OF INNOCENCE. To whom a disciplinary misconduct is attributed is presumed innocent until its responsibility is declared in the executing sentence.
During the performance any reasonable doubt will be resolved in favor of the investigation when there is no way to eliminate it.
ARTICLE 9o. NON BIS IN IDEM. This code, which has been resolved by an enforceable judgment or decision having the same binding force, provided by a competent authority, shall not be subject to a new investigation and disciplinary judgment for the same fact, even if it is given a different name.
ARTICLE 10. MATERIAL EQUALITY. In disciplinary action, material equality shall prevail over all of its interveners.
ARTICLE 11. DISCIPLINARY SANCTION FUNCTION. The disciplinary sanction has a preventive and corrective function to ensure the effectiveness of the principles and purposes provided for in the Constitution, the law and international treaties, to be observed in the exercise of the profession of lawyer.
ARTICLE 12. RIGHT TO THE DEFENSE. During the performance the disciplinable has the right to the material defense and to the designation of a lawyer. When deemed to be an absent person, he shall be appointed as an ombudsman.
ARTICLE 13. CRITERIA FOR THE GRADUATION OF THE SANCTION. The imposition of any disciplinary sanction shall be in accordance with the principles of reasonableness, necessity and proportionality. In the graduation of the sanction the criteria that set this law must be applied.
ARTICLE 14. GRATUITOUSNESS OF DISCIPLINARY ACTION. No procedural action will cause the person to intervene in the proceedings, except for the cost of the copies requested by the procedural subjects.
ARTICLE 15. INTERPRETATION. In the interpretation and application of this code the competent official must take into account that the purpose of the process is the prevalence of justice, the effectiveness of the substantive law, the search for truth material and compliance with the rights and guarantees due to the persons involved.
ARTICLE 16. APPLICATION OF PRINCIPLES AND NORMATIVE INTEGRATION. In the application of the disciplinary regime, the guiding principles contained in the Political Constitution and in this law will prevail. The international treaties on human rights and deontology of lawyers, and the provisions of the Single, Criminal, Criminal Procedure and Civil Procedure Codes, will be applied in this code. contravene the nature of disciplinary law.
GENERAL PROVISIONS.
DISCIPLINARY FAILURE.
ARTICLE 17. DISCIPLINARY MISCONDUCT. It constitutes disciplinary misconduct and gives rise to the imposition of sanction by the commission of any of the conduct intended as such in this code.
APPLICATION SCOPE.
ARTICLE 18. APPLICATION. This code shall apply to its addressees when they incur disciplinary misconduct within the national and foreign territory. In this case it will be necessary for the professional management to be entrusted in Colombia.
PARAGRAFO. Students attached to the legal offices of the country's universities will be disciplined in accordance with the statutes of the corresponding university.
DISCIPLINABLE SUBJECTS.
ARTICLE 19. ADDRESSEES. This code is addressed to lawyers in the exercise of their profession who comply with the task of advising, sponsoring and assisting natural or legal persons, both in private law and in public law, in the management and development of their legal relations, thus being excluded or suspended from the exercise of the profession and those acting on a provisional basis.
Under this regime, lawyers who perform public functions related to that exercise, as well as the ad litem curators, are understood. Likewise, lawyers representing a firm or association of lawyers shall be entitled to sign contracts for the provision of professional services to any degree.
WAYS TO PERFORM BEHAVIOR.
ARTICLE 20. ACTION AND OMSION. Disciplinary faults are performed by action or omission.
ARTICLE 21. MODALITIES OF SANCTIONABLE CONDUCT. Disciplinary Misconduct is only punishable by intent or fault.
EXCLUSION FROM DISCIPLINARY RESPONSIBILITY.
ARTICLE 22. CAUSES OF EXCLUSION FROM DISCIPLINARY RESPONSIBILITY. There shall be no disciplinary liability where:
1. It is heard in circumstances of force majeure or fortuitous case.
2. It is in strict compliance with a constitutional or legal duty of greater importance than the sacrificed one.
3. It is in legitimate exercise of a right or lawful activity.
4. It is intended to save a right or other right to which it is necessary to give up the line of duty, due to the need, adequacy, proportionality and reasonableness.
5. It is obracted by insurmountable alien coercion or insuperable fear.
6. He is obbed with the mistaken and invincible conviction that his conduct does not constitute disciplinary misconduct.
7. Act in a situation of inimputability.
There shall be no place in the recognition of unimputability when the disciplinary subject has preordained his or her behavior.
THE EXTINCTION OF ACTION AND DISCIPLINARY PUNISHMENT.
EXTINCTION OF DISCIPLINARY ACTION.
ARTICLE 23. CAUSALS. The following are the causes of extinction of the disciplinary action:
1. The death of the disciplinable.
2. The prescription.
PARAGRAFO. Complaining withdrawal does not extinguish disciplinary action.
ARTICLE 24. TERMS OF PRESCRIPTION. The disciplinary action prescribes in five years, counted for the instantaneous faults from the day of its consummation and for those of permanent or continuous character since the realization of the last executive act of the same.
When you force multiple behaviors judged in a single process, the prescription of the actions is met independently for each of them.
ARTICLE 25. WAIVER OF THE PRESCRIPTION. The disciplinable may waive the prescription of disciplinary action within the term of execution of the order that decrees it. In this case the action may only be continued for a maximum of two (2) years, counted from the personal presentation of the application, which, without having been offered and enforceable final decision, will not proceed determination other than the prescription declaratory.
EXTINCTION OF DISCIPLINARY SANCTION.
ARTICLE 26. CAUSALES. They are causes of extinction of disciplinary sanction:
1. The death of the sanctioned.
2. The prescription.
3. Rehabilitation.
ARTICLE 27. PRESCRIPTION TERM. The disciplinary sanction prescribes within a term of five (5) years, counted from the execution of the judgment.
SPECIAL PART.
ATTORNEY ' S DUTIES AND INCOMPATIBILITIES.
DUTIES.
ARTICLE 28. PROFESSIONAL DUTIES OF THE LAWYER. They are the duties of the lawyer:
1. Observe the Political Constitution and the law.
2. Defend and promote Human Rights, understood as the integral unity of civil and political, economic, social and cultural rights and collective rights, in accordance with the constitutional norms and international treaties ratified by Colombia.
3. Know, promote and respect the standards enshrined in this code.
4. Update the knowledge inherent in the exercise of the profession.
5. Preserve and defend the dignity and decorum of the profession.
6. To collaborate loyally and legally in the right and accomplished realization of justice and the ends of the State.
7. Observe and demand restraint, seriousness, weight and respect in their relations with the public servants, collaborators and auxiliaries of justice, the counterpart, lawyers and other persons involved in the affairs of their profession.
8. To work with loyalty and honesty in their professional relationships. In the course of this duty, among other aspects, the lawyer must set his or her fees with a fair, justified and proportional criterion in relation to the service provided or according to the rules for the effect, and will sign receipts each time you perceive money, whatever your concept.
You must also clearly agree the terms of the mandate with respect to the object, costs, consideration and form of payment.
9. Keep professional secrecy, even after ceasing the provision of your services.
10. To take care of their professional duties with zealous diligence, which extends to the control of the alternate and dependent lawyers, as well as to the members of the firm or association of lawyers representing the contract of benefit of the services, and to those who contract for the fulfillment of the same.
11. Proceed with loyalty and honesty in your relationships with colleagues.
12. Maintain at all times their professional independence, in such a way that their own or other political opinions, as well as philosophical or religious opinions, do not interfere at any time in the exercise of the profession, in which they will only have to attend to the Constitution, the law and the principles that guide it.
13. Prevent unnecessary, harmless or fraudulent litigation and facilitate alternative dispute resolution mechanisms.
14. Respect and comply with the legal provisions establishing incompatibilities for the exercise of the profession.
15. To have a known professional address, registered and updated to the National Registry of Lawyers for the attention of the matters entrusted to it, and must also immediately inform the authorities of any variation of the same which can be managed by any professional management.
16. Refrain from engaging in reckless acts in accordance with the law.
17. Urge witnesses to truthfully state the facts of their knowledge.
18. Truthfully inform your client about the following situations:
a) The possibilities of management, without creating false expectations, magnifying difficulties or ensuring a favorable outcome;
b) Relationships of kinship, friendship or interest with the opposing party or any situation that may affect their independence or to set a determining motive for the interruption of the professional relationship;
c) The constant evolution of the subject matter and the possibilities of alternative dispute resolution mechanisms.
19. To waive or replace the powers, orders or mandates entrusted to you, in those events where you have been imposed by you or a sanction that is incompatible with the exercise of the profession.
20. Refrain from accepting power in a matter until the corresponding peace has been obtained and except for the fees of those who have been attending it, except for justified reasons.
21. Accept and perform the designations as an advocate of trade. It may only be excused for serious illness, incompatibility of interests, be a public servant, or have three (3) or more defence of its own office, or that there is a reason that the official of knowledge may have a negative effect on the the defence of the person's claim or the violation of the fundamental rights of the designated person.
INCOMPATIBILITIES.
ARTICLE 29. INCOMPATIBILITIES. They cannot practice law, even if they are registered:
1. The public servants, even in the use of the license, except when they are required to do so according to their position or when the respective contract permits them. But in no case shall the lawyers hired or connected be litigated against the Nation, the department, the district or the municipality, according to the administrative sphere to which the entity or establishment belongs to which they provide their services, except in own-cause and lawyers for the poor in the actions to be brought forward in the performance of their duties.
PARAGRAFO. Qualified and enrolled lawyers who perform as professors of official universities will be able to practice the profession of law, provided that their exercise does not interfere with the faculty's functions. Likewise, the members of the People's Choice Corporations, in the cases mentioned in the Constitution and the law.
2. The military on active duty, with the exceptions enshrined in the Military Penal Code.
3. Persons deprived of their liberty as a result of the imposition of a measure of assurance or judgment, except where the action is in its own right, without prejudice to prison and prison regulations.
4. Lawyers suspended or excluded from the profession.
5. Lawyers in relation to matters of which they have known in the performance of a public office or in which they have been involved in the exercise of official duties. They will also not be able to do so before the dependency on which they have worked, within the year following the dejation of their position or function and for as long as a process in which they have intervened.
OF FAULTS IN PARTICULAR.
ARTICLE 30. They constitute faults against the dignity of the profession:
1. To intervene in judicial or administrative action in such a way as to prevent, disrupt or interfere with the normal development of the same.
2. To be in a state of drunkenness or under the effect of narcotic substances or those that produce dependence, alter the conscience and the will at the moment of carrying out judicial or administrative actions as a lawyer or in the exercise of the profession.
3. To provoke or to intervene voluntarily in rines or public scandal originated in professional affairs.
4. Act with bad faith in the activities related to the exercise of the profession.
5. Use brokers to obtain powers or participate fees with those who have recommended it.
6. Sponsor the illegal practice of law.
7. Get clients taking advantage of a calamity situation that severely affects the freedom of choice.
ARTICLE 31. They are faults against professional decorum:
1. Use propaganda that is not limited to the name of the lawyer, his or her academic titles and specializations, the positions held, the matters that he or she serves in preference or with exclusivity and the data relating to his or her professional address.
2. Request or obtain laudatory publicity for the public servants who know or have known about the specific cases in charge of the lawyer.
ARTICLE 32. They constitute faults against respect due to the administration of justice and the administrative authorities:
Recklessly accuse or indict public servants, lawyers and other persons involved in professional affairs, without prejudice to the right to reproach or denounce, by relevant means, offences or offences committed by those people.
ARTICLE 33. They are faults against the righteous and loyal realization of justice and the ends of the State:
1. Employ different means of persuasion to influence the mood of public servants, their collaborators or the auxiliaries of justice.
2. To promote a manifestly contrary cause or action.
3. To promote the presentation of various guardianship actions with respect to the same facts and rights, in which case the penalties provided for in Article 38 of Decree 2591 of 1991 shall apply.
4. To resort to threats or to praise the officials, their collaborators or the auxiliaries of justice in their professional démarches.
5. To invoke personal, professional, professional, political, cultural or religious relationships with the officials, their collaborators or the auxiliaries of justice.
6. Use of handouts, illegal remuneration, unjustified or unusual care or any other wrong act that may be interpreted as a means to achieve the favor or benevolence of the officials, their collaborators or the aids of justice.
7. Advise, sponsor or intervene in any act that carries the displacement of the functions of the auxiliaries of justice. It also incurs this fault of the lawyer who in any way accesses the goods in the dispute or who are involved in the dispute as long as it is in progress.
8. To propose incidents, to institute appeals, to formulate oppositions or exceptions, manifestly aimed at hindering or delaying the normal development of legal processes and processes, and, in general, the abuse of the legal channels or their employment to the contrary for its purpose.
9. Advise, sponsor or intervene in fraudulent acts to the detriment of interests outside, the State or the community.
10. To make malicious claims or denials, inaccurate, non-existent or decontextualized quotations that may deviate the right criteria of the officials, employees or auxiliaries of the justice responsible for defining a judicial question or administrative.
11. Use false evidence or powers, disfigure, rig or misrepresent evidence or powers for the purpose of enforcing them in judicial or administrative proceedings.
12. Violate the legal provisions on the sumarial reservation.
13. Violate the duty related to the professional address.
14. Perform breakdowns, remove files, files or copies thereof, without authorization, record glosas, marginal annotations on them, or seek their destruction.
ARTICLE 34. Constituency faults with customer loyalty:
a) Do not express your frank and complete opinion on the matter consulted or entrusted;
(b) Ensure that the management is responsible for obtaining a favourable result;
(c) To draw, in whole or in part, facts, legal implications or situations inherent in the management entrusted or to alter the correct information, in order to divert the free decision on the handling of the case;
d) Not to report truthfully on the constant evolution of the issue entrusted or the possibilities of alternative dispute resolution mechanisms;
e) Advising, sponsoring or representing, simultaneously or in succession, those with competing interests, without prejudice to the possibility that they may, with the consent of all, make arrangements that are in common interest;
In this fault, members of the same law firm or firm may also incur competing interests;
f) Revelar or use the secrets entrusted to you by the client, even by virtue of a requirement of authority, unless you have received written authorization from the client, or that you need to make disclosures to avoid the commission of a crime;
g) Acquiring the customer directly or indirectly all or part of their interest on account, other than the equitable remuneration of professional services and expenses;
h) Cellar the relationships of kinship, friendship or interest with the opposing party or any other situation that may affect their independence or configure determining motive to disrupt the proffeal relationship,
i) Accept any professional order for which you are not trained, or who cannot diligently attend to the excess of professional commitments.
