The creation of the Register of Registers will have a positive impact on the work of lawyers—Andriy Fomin, attorney at Barristers JSC

The creation and maintenance of a fully functional Registry of Public Electronic Registers—or, as it is now simply referred to, the “Registry of Registries”—as provided for in Bill No. 8602, is in and of itself a positive, necessary, and logical step by the legislature. The operation of a unified database of state, municipal, and self-regulatory organization registries will make it possible to organize and centralize in one place information from disparate informationtelecommunications systems that provide access to various databases—a trend that is, in fact, already taking shape as part of the broader shift toward an electronic, digital environment. However, as practice shows, due to bureaucratic processes, the large number of government agencies required to create and maintain registries, and the fact that the enterprises administering the registries fall under the jurisdiction of different agencies, this does not always proceed successfully. A striking example is the situation with the State Regulatory Service of Ukraine and the Unified Licensing Registry, which is currently not being updated and, consequently, is not functioning.

The number of registries is growing, and the maintenance of various registries varies: some are maintained in an orderly and clear manner, while others exist as they are, and the quality of these registries leaves much to be desired. To a large extent, this situation is also due to the lack of a centralized “list” of those registries that are maintained and/or should be maintained by authorized bodies or organizations.

The existence of these registries has already proven useful for lawyers. Searching for and verifying the necessary data takes relatively little time; there is no need to send written requests to government agencies that hold the relevant information; and the information provided from individual registries is official in nature and does not require additional confirmation or verification. The disorganization and fragmentation of the registries, and the absence of a “Register of Registers” make it impossible to quickly assess whether a particular registry is “official” or whether the information in such a registry should be regarded as nothing more than data compiled by a group of amateurs for interested parties. The ability to quickly utilize various data and to obtain and verify different types of information without expending significant resources—both in terms of time and money—is an integral part of a lawyer’s successful practice. Based on this, the creation of a centralized “Register of Registers” should have a positive impact on the work of lawyers.