Implementation of Advocate: Immunity Right in Defending Clients

Abstract

Legal dispute sometimes cannot be solved by deliberation, so that it has to be solved by law (litigation/non- litigation). The dispute solving by law takes a law professional (advocate). Advocate is one of law enforcers in Indonesia who has immunity right in doing his/her profession, which is regulated in Regulation number 18 year 2003 about advocate, specifically in article number 16 that an advocate cannot be prosecuted either civil or criminal when defending his/her client.   The immunity right is very important to be enforced to keep the advocate’s independence in carrying out the job.  A problem appears when the advocate is defending the client, which is when the advocate is considered violating the criminal law and/or civil law. Based on that matter this research was titled the implementation of advocate’s immunity right in defending the client.  The formulation of the problem in this research was the implementation of advocate’s immunity rights in Indonesia and the obstacles in implementing the immunity right, as well as how to solve it. The approach method used was normative juridical. The research specification used descriptive analysis. The sample determination used purposive sampling method. The research instrument includes literature study and interview. The method of data analysis was qualitative analysis. The result of the research indicated that the implementation of advocate immunity right had not been fully implemented in accordance with the provisions in Article 16 of the Advocate Regulation. It was the opinion of the majority of law enforcement respondents in Magelang and the surrounding areas. The factors that impeded the implementation of advocate immunity rights were divided into two, namely internal factors, including advocate behavior that was less upholding the code of ethics of advocate profession and divisive advocate organization; the external factors were other law enforcers (investigators, prosecutors, judges) and the community (the opponent or the victim's family) who have not/did not know and/or understand the existence of advocate immunity rights. The solution was to form a single forum of advocate organizations (single bar) in order to supervise the behavior of advocates; to be able to defend the violated rights of advocates, and establish proportional cooperation relationships (in accordance with their duties, functions and authorities) with other law enforcers (investigators, prosecutors, judges) in upholding the judicial system in Indonesia.