Almost every third (28.7%) of respondents saw their defense lawyer for the first time only in court, and 15.2% - did not meet with their defense lawyer. Diagram № 14 Meeting with defense lawyer The participation of so-called "duty" or "free" defense lawyers provided by the state still remains a pressing problem. According to the monitoring results, in 66.7% of cases, a defense lawyer involved by appointment and only in 31.3% of cases – by agreement of the suspect. Diagram № 15 Basis of participation of defense lawyer "Duty" lawyers are rarely involved in the proceedings, and only perform the formal requirements of the legislation on the signing of the necessary protocols and documents. Often these "defense lawyers" are working closely with law enforcement agencies, and sometimes even encourage the use of torture and ill-treatment, and often recommend to their clients to confess to the crime. The lack of mechanisms to monitor the quality of defense lawyers working within the free legal assistance system leads to a reduction in the quality of their services and widespread violation of professional standards of ethics. At the moment, according to experts, legal assistance at the expense of the State is not effective. 34 | Annual Report 2014