Entitlement of a person who has become a trainee lawyer in 2020 to the allowance referred to in Article XV(1)ind. 1 of GEO no. 30/2020 for amending and supplementing some normative acts, as well as for setting some measures
DREPTUL AFACERILOR/ASPECTE DE DREPT PROCESUAL
Abstract
Art. XV para. (1)1 of GEO no. 30/2020 regulates a particular situation with respect to the general rule concerning the professionals indicated generically in Art. XV para. (1) of GEO No 30/2020, who „cease their activity” during the state of emergency in Romania (i.e. they no longer carry out their activity during that period), providing that, in the case of lawyers, they shall receive the monthly allowance provided for in Article XV para. (1) of GEO no. 30/2020 and lawyers who „reduced their activity” during the state of emergency (i.e. not only if they stopped their activity during the state of emergency), if in the month for which they claim the allowance they have earned at least 25% less than the monthly average for the year 2019, but not exceeding the average gross salary provided for by Law no. 6/2020. The plaintiff is not the recipient of the allowance granted under Article XV(1) of the Staff Regulations. (1) and par. (1)1, since in her application to the defendant she indicated a „partial interruption” of her activity for the month of April 2020, which means a reduction of her activity as a lawyer and not a total interruption of activity.
It is true that the acquisition of the status of lawyer at the end of 2019 or during 2020 is an objective circumstance, independent of any fault on the part of the person holding this status, but such a circumstance, if taken into account, independently of the cumulative requirements imposed by Article XV para. (1)1 of the GEO no. 30/2020 regarding the income obtained in relation to the average monthly income for 2019 and the average gross salary provided for by Law no. 6/2020, would generate an application of the legal rule, by avoiding the conditions imposed by the law, to particular situations other than those specific to the legal text. If the law intended to grant such allowance also to lawyers who did not earn any income in 2019, regardless of whether they are trainees or permanent employees, it would not have imposed the condition that the average monthly income for the month for which the allowance is claimed is the average monthly income for the previous year, 2019.
The wording of Article XV para. (1)1 of GEO no. 30/2020 requires the need to obtain reduced income in 2020 compared to the corresponding month of 2019, which implies the existence of a work activity in 2019. However, if the law wished to grant such an allowance to lawyers who did not earn any income in 2019, regardless of whether they are trainees or permanent, it would have enacted such a rule that would no longer condition the receipts for the month for which the allowance is claimed on the average monthly receipts of the previous year, 2019.
The distinction between qualified and trainee lawyers is not relevant, as the conditions of Article XV(1)1 of GEO no. 30/2020 is not relevant, nor is there any discrimination between trainee lawyers appointed to the profession in 2020 and who did not earn the work income in 2019 and qualified lawyers who had the possibility of earning the work income in 2019.
With regard to the effects of other judgments invoked by the litigants, as judicial precedent, despite an extensive custom of justifying legal opinions on the basis of judgments, in the Romanian legal system, judgments do not have the quality of a source of law, as they are not generally binding.
