Uprawnienie adwokata do działania w charakterze kuratora procesowego małoletniego w procesie karnym
The right of an advocate to act as a probation officer for a minor in a criminal trial

Summary/Abstract: The subject of this analysis are the amended provisions of the Family and Guard- ianship Code with regard to the institution of the juvenile probation officer, which defined the standards of children’s representation by appointed probation officers in order to protect their rights and interests. The issues discussed were narrowed down only to the rights of an advocate in this respect in the course of criminal proceedings, as only professional attorneys (including legal counsels) in this procedure may be appointed probation officers.The provisions introduced in the Family and Guardianship Code will standardize the institution of guardianship in Polish law. They impose on the probation officer a number of obligations and requirements with a view to protecting the interests of minors, i.e. in terms of having appropriate qualifications, getting to know, and listening to the minor, informing the minor about the actions taken, informing the parent not participating in the proceedings and observing the obligation of secrecy.The choice of the issues raised deserves recognition, as it should be stated that so far the issue of probation officers for a minor has not been the subject of numerous statements of the doctrine, and the changes introduced in practice raise doubts. The rational action of the legislator should be assessed in the determination of formal requirements for probation officers and the determination of the rules and amount of determining the remuneration granted to them and reimbursement of expenses incurred by probation officers, which in the previous legal status were de facto not regulated directly.Nevertheless, reservations should be raised as to the regulations regarding the way probation officers fulfill their information obligations in relation to the parent and the minor. At the same time, in the doctrine and in jurisprudence, there are different positions as to the possibility of replacing an attorney by an attorney trainee authorized by him, which will be presented in this article. In conclusion, the introduced changes should be considered correct, however, the above-mentioned legislative imperfections have not yet been uniformly worked out in practice.

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