10 French law offices in Algeria get legal notice

The National Union of Lawyers issued a legal notice to 10 French law offices for informal work in Algeria.

• The union held a meeting last week to discuss the work of foreign consultation and studies offices in Algeria especially the French ones.
• The unions agreed on the necessity of putting and end to the informal work and obliging them to work within the permission of the Algerian State.
• According to lawyer Zouhir Ben Cherif, the move of the union came following many complaints against those offices but the union could not intervene because the French law offices are not accredited by the lawyers’ union leader. « Though, they gained big deals in legal consultations market without the accreditation of the Algerian Lawyers’ Unions Organization.
• The organization asked those offices to respect the Algerian laws and settle their situation in commercial registers. If they are lawyers, they must submit an accreditation demand to the lawyers’ union with a full file. Then, they will have to take oath and open a law office. Otherwise, they must work within the Algerian State’ permission.
• The union gave a deadline to the offices to settle their situation. Otherwise, it will have to close all of them.
• Lawyers from national unions in Algiers told Echorouk that those French offices entered Algeria as business law consultation offices and gained big legal projects offered by the government within economic reforms.
• Those projects were an opportunity for them to settle in Algeria and open legal consultation offices. However, they progressively turned to law work and started dealing with judicial files without being accredited by the National Union of Lawyers.
• According to sources from the union, those offices deal with many judicial files relating to conflicts on children of dual citizenship and commercial cases. The Algerian law does not allow foreign lawyers pleading in Algerian courts until they get accreditation from the lawyers’ union leader.