Lawyers across the country announce readiness to protest against presidential veto

The heads of the country's bar associations have declared their readiness to mount an effective protest against President Rumen Radev's veto of amendments to the Civil Procedure Code. The recently adopted amendments concern new rules for the appointment of ad hoc representatives, the setting of their fees and objections to excessive legal costs.

Radev is opposed to the provision that special advocates' fees will be set by local bar councils, arguing that this undermines the powers of the judiciary.

"This effectively turns lawyers into legal advisers and servants of the court, which will first be able to choose the party's lawyer and then set its own humiliating fees without clear criteria and motives," the lawyers said in their statement. "We oppose the blatant violation of the principle of freedom of contract on which legal services are based," they added.