What is the difference between lawyer and a jurist?

In the legal activities the range of professions is very wide: Lawyer, attorney, prosecutor, judge, notary. So what do they have in common and what is the difference between lawyer a jurist?

The common thing between jurist and a lawyer is that the activities of both are related to the provision of legal assistance to the client. Differences consist mainly in the fact that the profession of a jurist is not regulated by a special law, and accordingly - no specific requirements laid down. For professional activities, it is only necessary for a jurist to have a legal education, no additional attestations are required. At the same time, to obtain a certificate of the right to practice as a lawyer, a lawyer must have not less than two years of experience in the field of law, pass a qualification exam, pass a special internship and swear an oath of the lawyer of Ukraine. In addition, the law of Ukraine "On Advocacy and Advocacy" (hereinafter - the Law), as are the requirements concerning the incompatibility with the activities of a lawyer and a ban on conducting advocacy to certain groups of people.

In contrast to the work of a lawyer, the activities of a lawyer are regulated by special regulatory and legal acts. Thus, the law determines the list of duties of a lawyer, among which: adherence to the Oath of Advocate and Rules of Advocacy Ethics, observance of advocate secrecy, continuous improvement of one's professional level, prohibition to act to the detriment of the client's interests and others. For violation of legal obligations lawyer may be held liable up to the deprivation of the right to exercise legal practice.

At the same time, the lawyer has a much larger set of tools for effective legal assistance, among which you can distinguish a lawyer's secret and a lawyer's request. Advocate secrecy guarantees confidentiality in the relationship between the client and the lawyer, because the law explicitly prohibits the disclosure of lawyer secrets by a lawyer and employees of his office.

Jurist, also have to enter into a separate agreement with the client confidentiality. But even such a contract does not guarantee legislative protection of information received by a jurist who does not have the status of a lawyer, in the process of his professional activities.

With the help of a lawyer's request, the lawyer can additionally collect the information necessary to provide legal assistance to the client, the law stipulates that the requirements of the lawyer's request are mandatory for those to whom it is addressed and the responsibility for ignoring it is established.

To obtain legal assistance, clients apply to both jurist and lawyers, but the law defines the scope of the lawyer's activities more widely. An example of this - the exclusive right to be the defender in the criminal process, as provided by the Constitution of Ukraine and the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine.

Areas of activity of jurists and lawyers are gradually differentiated and recent changes in legislation (called "judicial reform"), introducing a gradual "monopolization" of lawyers work on representation of clients' interests in courts. The amendments to the Constitution of Ukraine that entered at the end of September of this year provide, with some exceptions, that only lawyers will represent persons in the courts:

- from January 1, 2017 in the Supreme Court and courts of cassation;

- from January 1, 2018 - in the courts of appeal;

- since January 1, 2019 - in the courts of first instance.

Thus, in fact, from the indicated date (from January 1, 2019), in any court representation of persons will be available only to lawyers.