Modern socio-political situation in Ukraine requires reform of the judicial system, the judiciary and related legal institutions, including the bar. However, not only domestic but also global processes affect the development of the bar, the peculiarities of the interaction between the bar and the state, guarantees of independence, the legal status of an advocate, the types of practice of law etc.
The main purpose of the bar is to provide professional legal services, the implementation of which, as a general rule, requires an agreement under which one party (advocate, advocate bureau, advocate company) undertakes to protect, represent or provide other types of legal services to the other party (to the client), and the client undertakes to pay for the provision of legal services and the actual costs necessary to perform the legal services contract. The complexity of the legal regulation of the relationship between an advocate and a client is due to the fact that they are regulated not only by general civil law, relevant legislation on the bar and practice of law, but also moral and ethical rules, which are mandatory for advocates.
The relevance of the research topic is due to modern processes of improving the field of professional legal services, new legislative approaches to determining the types of legal services provided exclusively by advocates. In these circumstances, the contract for legal services is a guarantee of protection of the rights and interests of both the client and the lawyer.
Problems with the implementation of the provisions of the contract on legal services are associated with both objective reasons (change of charges against the client, the emergence of additional property (non-property) dispute, change of circumstances, termination of advocate professional activity in cases defined by law, etc.) and ssubjective reasons (improper performance of professional duties by an advocate, uncertainty about the client's position in the case, intentional provision by the client of inaccurate information about the circumstances of the case or concealment of information from the advocate for any reason).
The advocate`s relationship with the client arises when a person seeks professional legal services, continues during the implementation of the legal services contract concluded between them, and certain duties are performed by the advocate after the expiration or termination of the legal services contract.
At the same time, the advocate's relationship with the client is bilateral, involving not only a set of responsibilities but also the rights of the advocate, which means the responsibility of both the advocate and the client in case of non-compliance with the contract. Improving the quality, completeness and timeliness of professional legal services requires a comprehensive analysis of the nature and content of the legal relationship between advocate and client, development of provisions and sound proposals to improve the legal regulation of advocate status in relations with clients.
