Justice minister urges lawyers not to strike

BELGRADE - Serbian Justice Minister Nikola Selakovic called on lawyers in Serbia not to suspend their work and to continue talks on lump sum taxation with the Ministries of Justice and Finance in the week to come.

The Assembly of the Bar Association of Serbia decided yesterday that lawyers from across Serbia should go on strike on September 17 and join Belgrade's lawyers who stopped working on September 10, and to withdraw from all working bodies of the Serbian government and judiciary.

Selakovic said in a statement for Tanjug that the decision of the Assembly of the Bar Association of Serbia was a politicization of the legal profession.

Lawyers are seeking to have their lump sum tax burdens back to last year's level because the levies have been drastically magnified this yea, and they also want certain law provisions relating to the operation of public notaries repealed.

Speaking about lawyers' criticizing the introduction of the public notary system, Selakovic said that one of the most flagrant things was calling lawyers not to participate in the proceedings before the public notaries in Serbia.
"The introduction of the public notary system in Serbia is the beginning of introducing order in legal trnsactions," said Selakovic.

He said that the lack of a public notary system (which in this part of Europe, prior to September 1 of this year, was not in place only in Serbia) suited those who had been involved in frauds, knowing how to avoid meeting their tax obligations, fishing in murky waters and doing things not in accordance with the law.

Selakovic said that the law on public notary system had been adopted in 2011, and in the meantime, preparations had been in place for the beginning of its...