Criminal law

According to the Constitution and the Law of Ukraine “On the Bar and the Practice of Law”, only attorneys at law have the right to provide legal assistance to clients in criminal proceedings.

Sokolovskyi and Partners’ lawyers are attorneys at law or assistants. The Law of Ukraine “On the Bar and the Practice of Law” classifies any information and documents received by an attorney and employee of a law firm during the provision of legal assistance to a client as attorney-client privilege. The law prohibits review, disclosure, reclamation or removal of documents related to the practice of law.

In accordance with the Law of Ukraine “On the Bar and the Practice of Law”, our company provides protection against charges of economic and white-collar crimes, in particular, under the following articles of the Criminal Code of Ukraine:

172 (gross violation of labour legislation);
191 (appropriation, misappropriation or possession of property by abuse of office);
192 (causing property damage by fraud or abuse of trust); 205 (sham business);
205-1 (forgery of documents to be submitted for the state registration of legal entity and individual entrepreneurs);
209 (legalization (laundering) of proceeds from crime); 212 (evasion from the payment of taxes and fees (obligatory payments));
212-1 (evasion from payment of single contribution to the compulsory state social insurance and insurance contributions to the compulsory state pension insurance);
219 (causing to become bankrupt);
258-5 (financing terrorism);
354 (bribery of employee of an enterprise, institution or organisation);
356 (usurpation of power);
358 (forgery of documents, seals, stamps and forms; sale or use of forged documents, seals, stamps);
364 (abuse of power or office);
364-1 (abuse of authority by official of legal entity under the private law, regardless of its legal form);
365 (excess of authority or official authority by law enforcement officer);
365-2 (abuse of authority by persons providing public services); 366 (forgery by official);
366-1 (declaration of inaccurate information);
367 (negligence by official);
368 (acceptance of proposal or promise or receipt of unlawful benefit by official);
368-3 (bribery of official of legal entity under the private law, regardless of its legal form).

Specialisation:

Pre-trial protection:
representation and protection of clients’ interests during interrogations, searches, seizure of property, detention;
drafting of procedural documents:

• application for inclusion of information on commission of criminal offence into the Unified Register of Pre-Trial Investigations,
• application for the recognition of the person as victim of a crime,
• petitions on commission of investigative, inquiry and secret investigative (inquiry) measures; complaints to the investigating judge about decisions, actions and omissions of investigators or prosecutors, in particular, regarding omissions of investigators/prosecutors regarding the non-return of property temporarily seized during the search, about failure to register information upon statement of crime in the Uniform Register of Pre-Trial Investigations, about investigator’s resolution to refuse to recognise a client as a victim, about investigator’s resolution to refuse to comply with request for investigative or inquiry measures,
• petition to the investigating judge on the cancellation of property seizure,
• appeal against the decision of the investigating judge on seizure of property,
• petition to the investigating judge on access to things and documents,
• petition to the investigating judge on amending preventive measures for the suspect,
• appeal against decision of the investigating judge on preventive measures for the suspect,

representation of client’s interests in the course of the consideration of petitions and complaints by investigating judges;

preparation of complaints to supervisory prosecutors about actions of investigators;

representation of victim’s interests;

preparation and filing of civil lawsuits.

Protection in court:

drafting of procedural documents:

• petition for the return of indictment to the prosecutor;
• petition for the classification of evidence as inappropriate/inadmissible;
• petition for the order to the pre-trial investigation body to conduct investigative/inquiry measures (search, search of a person for interrogation in court as witness, etc.);
• conciliation agreement, petition for renegotiating the terms of a conciliation agreement;
• appeal, cassation appeal, objection to appeal and/or cassation appeal;
• applications for review of court decision on the basis of newly discovered or exceptional circumstances,

protection of client’s interests at all stages of criminal proceedings.

Sokolovskyi and Partners has set up a team of attorneys at law specialising in economic, white-collar and corruption crimes, which includes 9 attorneys at law and 5 assistants. Therefore, in case of large-scale searches and other investigative measures, we provide legal protection to clients when investigative actions take place simultaneously in several locations (in the office, shops, factory or house of the owner and other employees of the client company).