The Chairman of the Chamber of Advocates Ara Zohrabyan appealed to the president of the National Assembly Ararat Mirzoyan, Chairman of the NA Standing Committee on State and Legal Affairs Vladimir Vardanyan, MPs Arthur Davtyan, Edmon Marukyan, Taron Simonyan, Suren Grigoryan, Heriknaz Tigranyan and Anna Karapetyan, for assistance in changing the norms in RA Criminal Procedure Code, the RA Civil Procedure Code and the Administrative Procedure Code of the Republic of Armenia, envisaging the possibility of applying a judicial fee to advocates.

It is mentioned in the note that starting from October 31, 2017, the Chamber of Advocates of the Republic of Armenia expressed its negative attitude towards these draft laws on various occasions.

On January 16, 2018, an initiative group was formed as a result of the advocates' discussions in the Chamber of Advocates of RA, which organized active actions against the adoption of the mentioned draft laws.

About 1,500 lawyers joined the statement condemning these projects, and since January 22, 2018, advocates from different regions have organized protests, refusing to provide protection or representation in state bodies in their regions, including courts.

On the 7th and 8th of February, 2018, advocates throughout the Republic of Armenia have held protests, refusing to provide protection or representation in state bodies (including courts).

"Tsarukyan", "Yelq" and "Armenian Revolutionary Federation" factions for the previous parliamentary convocation also expressed their support to the advocates by criticizing the draft laws in their speech and voting against the draft laws. 

On February 9, 2018, the National Assembly of RA passed the Civil Procedure Code of Armenia with its package, with 59 for, 25 against and 10 abstentions.

On February 12, 2018 Minister of Justice of RA Davit Harutyunyan publicly stated: “… if advocates believe that there may be some risks in the application of this judicial sanction and, in their view, there are additional measures or opportunities to neutralize them, the Ministry of Justice is ready to listen to their views and arguments. Currently, we are working on a draft law on amendments to the law on advocacy and I think that within the framework of this process we can discuss these and other issues of advocates’ concern”.

After the above-mentioned statement of the Ministry of Justice of RA, the initiative group has stopped the protests for a while.

On May 23, 2018, the Chamber of Advocates of RA appealed to the newly appointed Minister of Justice of RA Artak Zeynalyan asking to assist in changing the norms in RA Criminal Procedure Code, the RA Civil Procedure Code and the Administrative Procedure Code of the Republic of Armenia, which envisage the possibility of applying a judicial fee to advocates.  

To date, the Chamber of Advocates of RA has not received the official statement of the Government of the Republic of Armenia.

The Chamber of Advocates and the Initiative Group will continue their consistent policy on this issue.

Today, the National Assembly consists of the parties in the factions ("Prosperous Armenia" party, "Bright Armenia" party, "Civil Contract" party, part of "My Step" alliance)) that have been critical of the mentioned procedural norms, which gives grounds to predict that, both the newly elected government and the newly elected National Assembly will maintain their PRINCIPAL position.