Notary Chamber of Georgia responds to the application of “International Transparency - Georgia”

Notary Chamber of Georgia considers that the remarks done by "International Transparency - Georgia" to the draft on making amendments to the Law of Georgia "On Notaries" prepared by the Ministry of Justice are not legally substantiated. It is a subjective opinion of certain persons on the reforms planned in the notariat and desirable for us.

In order to prove that assertions of "International Transparency - Georgia" devoid the legal basis, we define:

- Notary Chamber already has liabilities to support notaries according to the Law and have really committed different kind of assistance to notaries till now, particularly for those acting in regions. This assistance is determined according to each individual case and it lacks institutionalization. The proposed reform specifically defines the types of assistance, areas and states the obligation that the chamber with the agreement of the Ministry will establish and officially determine the criteria of whom, where and why to assist. In this way, the Chamber will have a particular responsibility of how and in what quantity to assist the newly-appointed notaries in regions. This approach is needed for better planning of annual budget and its foreseeability.

- The Minister of Justice of Georgia has already a power under the Law to determine the maximum number of notaries, but the law does not provide the distribution principle of this amount within the country. This has resulted in abundance of the number of notaries in urban areas, while there is the number of settlements remaining without a notary for many years. At present, the majority of acting 252 notaries in Georgia carry out the notary activities in the capital and other major cities, there are 146 notaries in Tbilisi, 12 notaries in Batumi, 11 notaries in Kutaisi and only 83 notaries serve in other municipalities and rural areas of Georgia.

Thus, the applicable law on notary services can’t meet the needs of the citizens. Under the proposed reform, the Minister of Justice will be able to name a number of notaries not blindly and mechanically, but rather to regulate that the notary service should be available where people need it, and also all notaries to be protected from unhealthy competition.

In addition, the increase of availability of Public Services in the mountainous areas and places far from the city will support the settlement of population.

And finally, such reform will allow the active notaries to fully devote their time to the community, where they have the notary office. Perhaps, it isn’t unknown for "International Transparency - Georgia" that notaries have sequence to serve at least once a week in the various villages and municipalities, where the notary is not available, but there  is public demand for notary service (Sarthichala, Poka, Jvari, Kvareltskali, Mejvriskhevi, Mukhaestate).

- As for the reference of "International Transparency - Georgia" on the protocol entry to the Constitutional Court dated November 13, 2014, it should be noted that the case before the court dealt with the specific provision from the Law “On Notaries” which imperatively limited the notary appointment in case of relevant basis.

Like this restriction, the law recognizes many other obstacles. Such restrictions are adopted not only in case of notaries, but also in other fields to the candidates willing to hold the post. The norm proposed by the reforms is not known as unconstitutional neither by content nor by regulated area.

- “International Transparency - Georgia" also talks about the lack of economic justification of the rules on mandatory appointment of notaries in regions. As the argument, it indicates to the same provision of the Law that determines exactly the opposite and defines the basic principle of notary activities - notarial profession is not an entrepreneurship and the source of gaining profit. Consequently, the authors of the reform oriented to the need of citizens and not to financial benefits of a concrete Notary. In addition, the Notariat is granted by law the role of the regulator of legal relations between the Citizens, it isn’t a financial institution, which must be profit-oriented.

- As for the motivation issue of potential staff in the Notariat, don’t forget that qualified specialists live in the settlements and municipalities, who will be able to be employed in own regions and who know that their low incomes in the beginning will be guaranteedly balanced through financial assistance and as already professionally well prepared, they will continue their activities in any region of Georgia after the completion of three-year term. Thus, expressed assumption that there is a deficit of staff expected in the notariat, can’t be accepted. Moreover, there is no big settlement that experiences the lack of notaries; on the contrary, Georgia has one of the highest indexes in the amount of Notaries in such settlements. In the settlements, where the increase of availability of notary activities is planned as a result of this reform, Georgia is one of the worst-affected countries in Europe.

This reform serves to improve this bad reference to the Notaries of Georgia and increase the availability of notary services for the citizens of Georgia, which is currently being discussed in the Parliament and we hope it will soon enter into force.

Finally, if you look through the European legislation, you will see that the rules for the appointment of notaries foreseen by the reform operate in many European countries (Germany, Italy, Spain ...) and provide more restrictive rules for the newly appointed notaries.

As the members of Latin Notaries, we, the Notary Chamber of Georgia know and adhere to the principle under which the public service must be available and only the best, dedicated and experienced lawyers must work as notaries.