Inside Police Custody 2 the file is restricted until he becomes a defendant. Lawyers have admitted that it is very difficult to adapt to the way the criminal investigation bodies work, especially their tactic of delaying access to the case file documents, leading to an initial poor defence. According to current legislation, the possibility of case file restriction during the criminal investigation is formulated in general, ambiguous terms, giving a lot of power to prosecutors to deny access to documents. Legal aid and the Role of Lawyers Legal assistance is mandatory for persons who are deprived of liberty and under no circumstance can assistance be waived in these situations. For suspects and defendants who are not deprived of liberty and are investigated for minor offences, the police hearings can be carried out in the absence of a lawyer, if they cannot afford one. This is problematic, especially in cases of vulnerable persons, who cannot read or write. Even if the legislation allows criminal investigation bodies to appoint a legal aid lawyer if they consider a person cannot defend herself, this rarely happens in practice. In some cases, for persons deprived of liberty, some police officers chose to call certain lawyers, despite a well-established randomized appointment procedure. During the police hearings, the researchers had the opportunity to observe the behaviour of both legal aid lawyers and private lawyers. The consultations before the hearings were very short, ranging from 1 minute to 10 minutes long and they usually happened either on the police station hallway or in the hearing room, in the presence of several police officers. There was no pressure coming from police officers concerning the length of these consultations, although in some situations it was not clear to them if they should allow for consultation breaks while the hearing was taking place. The most striking observation while attending hearings has been the attitude of most lawyers, characterized by lack of professionalism towards their clients. They were either indifferent (with minimal intervention) or arrogant, failing to explain what was going on and disregarding the clients’ opinion. With one exception, based on the observations made, the legal assistance can be assessed as ineffective, a mere procedural formality. Recommendations Government and Parliament 1. To amend the Criminal Procedure Code and the law regulating the lawyers’ activity in order to clearly specify what the legal assistance activity during the criminal investigation phase means. Detailed legislation should provide for the lawyer’s right to consult his client before answering any question during the hearing as well as their necessary stipulations for the operation in practice of the right to legal assistance. 2. To amend the Criminal Procedure Code in order to make clear the maximum number of days for which restriction in a case file may be ordered by the prosecutor. 3. To amend the existing legal framework concerning the right to interpretation and translation during criminal proceedings in order to cover important requirements of the Directive 2010/64/UE. Thus: 85