Self-employed lawyers may continue to visit the office as before. This has been assured by the General Council of Spanish Lawyers (CGAE), in a press release issued this Monday, a few hours after the publication of Royal Decree-Law 10/2020, which limits economic activity to essentials due to the crisis of COVID-19.
According to the CGAE, the new Royal Decree-law, published in the BOE on the edge of midnight on Monday, is directed to “all employed persons who provide services in companies or entities of the public or private sector and whose activity has not been paralyzed as a result of the declaration of a state of alarm established by Royal Decree 463/2020, of March 14th. ”Therefore, self-employed lawyers may continue with their tasks and travel to their workplace” as they had been doing it. ”
The RD-law includes two express mentions to lawyers beyond this generic mention. First, it excludes lawyers from the Duty Shift who have to travel for work reasons. Specifically, the third Additional Provision, which dictates that the procedural actions not suspended by Royal Decree 463/2020 must continue as before. Within these actions, the CGAE understands, both legal assistance to the detainee and to victims of gender violence should be included, “as well as all those that, if not carried out, may entail irreparable damage to fundamental rights.”
Second, point 16 of the aforementioned Additional Provision also includes the exception of freelance lawyers. Specifically, it excludes “Las [personas] that provide services in law firms and consultancies, administrative agencies and social graduates, and services of others and their own for the prevention of occupational hazards, in urgent matters “.
The decree does not, however, enter into determining what should be considered “urgent matters”. A legal vacuum that has created some uncertainty in the legal sector. For the moment, the CGAE limits itself to clarifying that each case “must be assessed individually.”
As pointed out by the legal governing body, some drafts that were finally discarded and that were leaked to the press did incorporate some examples of these urgent actions, such as the processing of ERTES, or advice on tax matters. In the text published in the BOE, it has finally been decided to leave the question open.
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