Vadim Kolokolnikov, an attorney at BARRISTERS, LLC, told Legal High School attendees how to effectively argue with a judge

Vadym Kolokolnikov, an attorney and head of the Lviv office of BARRISTERS JSC, explained to the audience at Legal High School how to properly raise objections and challenges to a judge’s actions. He reminded the audience that, according to Article 42 of the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine, the defense has the right to raise objections and challenges regarding a judge’s actions. According to the lecturer, this is a universal means of responding to procedural violations; however, Article 329 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of Ukraine requires unquestioning compliance with the judge’s decision, such as when the judge has considered an objection and denied it.

What should a defense attorney do when his client’s rights are violated (in particular, when the client is held in a cage or a glass booth)? According to the lecturer, a conflict has arisen between two articles of the Code of Criminal Procedure, which can be resolved by following the example of the well-known fable about the frogs that fell into a pitcher of milk: one of them did nothing and drowned, while the other struggled and churned the milk, thereby escaping from the jug.

Vadym Kolokolnikov noted that most judges view defense attorneys who are overly active negatively. The lecturer emphasized that any position taken by a defense attorney must be based on the understanding that he or she is the sole line of defense between the prosecution and the defendant. And when a judge behaves like a king and a god, the only thing a defense attorney can do in response is to document all procedural violations.

A lawyer’s objections usually concern the content of documents (for example, a search warrant). In this way, the lawyer draws the judge’s attention to the shortcomings of such a document. During a court hearing, one should draw attention to procedural violations occurring in the hearing by filing a written motion. If the defendant’s request to be released from the dock is denied, we file an objection and ask that it be recorded in the court hearing log, and so on.

If the attorney, realizing that the trial holds no prospect of success for their client, is preparing an appeal, they must establish a documentary basis for this, and the court clerk must record the attorney’s objections in the court transcript, because no one will review the video recording of the court session during the appeal proceedings.

Vadym Kolokolnikov emphasized that one should not engage in procedural manoeuvres or abuse procedural rights, but sometimes a lawyer has no other choice, since their task is to defend the client by all lawful means. Based on his own experience, he noted that judges often do not have a full grasp of the case materials, so an active stance by the defense can tip the scales if the attorney can prove his case. Every action, motion, document, and witness testimony must be logical and precise, because if even one of the attorney’s arguments proves to be flawed, the judge may disregard the others.