Lawyer Gonzalo Boyewho defends the president of Junts, Laura Borras, has presented at the Col legi de l’Advocacy of Barcelona a request to be allowed to reveal the conversations and emails that he exchanged during the three years of investigation of the case with the lawyers of the other two defendants, the computer scientist Isaiah Herrero and the businessman Andreu Pujol. These last two defendants have reached an agreement with the prosecution to incriminate the former president of Parliament in the splitting of contracts when she directed the Institució de les Lletres Catalanes, which has caused the unitary strategy that they had maintained during the three years of instruction to break.
What does this consist of? waiver of professional secrecy? The Col·legi de l’Advocacia de Barcelona receives around 200 requests per year lifting of professional secrecy. They are directed to ethics commission of the professional body and are confidential procedures. Of course, the reasons that justify the measure must be very well justified so that it can go ahead. It is not the procedure that the ethics commission receives the most, but it is not uncommon either.
The contradictory nature of the procedure means that, once the application is registered, the ethics commission notifies the other parties involved. In the case of Borràs, the association must notify Herrero’s lawyers (Marina Roig) and Pujol (Àlex Solà) so that they can make claims. This aspect is what determines the resolution time of the request, since documents or new documents may be required. foundation briefs before taking a decision. The agreement is confidentially notified to all parties, who may act accordingly and as they consider best to defend their clients before the courts of justice.
The right of defense
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With regard to Borràs, the defense of the leader of Junts intends, if in the end he receives the endorsement of the Col legi de l’Advocacia, to deliver the emails and communications that he has had with the lawyers of the other defendants. In Boye’s opinion, the agreement with the Herrero and Pujol prosecutor’s office, not yet formalized, violates “the right of defense” of the pro-independence leader, since these two defendants and their legal representatives know her tactic.
The waiver of professional secrecy is a procedure that a lawyer can request to avoid a “wrongful injury” to his client or to himself. The procedure is regulated in the statutes of the Col legi de l’Advocacy of Barcelona and in the regulations of the Catalan legal profession. When a resolution is adopted, it is done in the name of the corporation. The sources consulted assure that, in many cases, it is the same lawyer who requests this waiver in order to defend himself.