Chapter II: Of Procurators ad lites and Advocates

§ 1. In a criminal judgment the accused must always have an advocate either chosen by himself or given by the judge.

§ 2. Also in a contentious judgment, if there is question of minors or of a judgment in which the public good is involved, the judge is to assign ex officio a defender to a party lacking one, or, if the case bears it, add one also to a party who has another.

§ 3. Apart from these cases, a party can freely constitute an advocate and procurator, but he can also act and respond in judgment by himself, unless the judge has considered the ministry of a procurator or advocate necessary.

§ 4. But a Bishop, whenever he is in a cause, is to constitute someone who bears his person under the name of procurator.

§ 1. Each person can choose a single procurator, who cannot substitute another for himself unless express faculty has been given to him.

§ 2. But if, with a just cause suggesting it, several are deputed by the same person, they are to be constituted so that there is place for prevention among them.

§ 3. Several advocates, however, can be constituted at the same time.

§ 4. The same person can exercise both offices, of procurator and of advocate, even in the same cause and for the same client.

§ 1. A procurator and advocate must be Catholics, of major age, and of good reputation; a non-Catholic is not admitted except by exception and from necessity.

§ 2. An advocate must moreover be a doctor or otherwise truly expert, at least in canon law.

§ 3. A religious can be admitted, unless something else is provided in the constitutions, only in causes in which the advantage of his religion is involved, yet with the license of the Superior.

§ 1. Anyone can be freely chosen and deputed as procurator by a party, provided he is suitable according to the preceding canon, without there being need for the approval of the Ordinary to have preceded.

§ 2. But an advocate, in order to be admitted to patronage, needs the approval of the Ordinary, which may be either general for all causes or special for a certain cause.

§ 3. In a judgment before a delegate of the Holy See, it belongs to the delegate himself to approve and admit the advocate whom the party has shown that he wishes to use.

§ 4. The procurator and advocate, in causes which according to the norm of can. 1579, Secs. 1, 2 are conducted in the tribunal of a religion, are to be chosen from the same religion and, before undertaking patronage, approved by him who performs the part of judge in the cause; but in causes which according to the norm of the same canon Sec. 3 are treated before the tribunal of the local Ordinary, one outside the religion can also be admitted.

§ 1. A procurator is not to be admitted by the judge before he has deposited at the tribunal a special mandate for lawsuits in writing, even at the foot of the citation itself, furnished with the signature of the mandating person, and referring to the place, day, month, and year.

§ 2. But if the mandating person does not know how to write, it is necessary that this very thing be established from the writing, and that the pastor or notary of the Curia or two witnesses sign the mandate in place of the mandating person.

The mandate of procuration must be preserved in the acts of the cause.

An advocate, in order to undertake the patronage of a cause, must have from the party or from the judge a commission after the manner of a procuratorial mandate, concerning which there must be proof in the acts.

Unless he has had a special mandate, the procurator cannot renounce the action, the instance, or judicial acts, nor transact, make an agreement, compromise into arbiters, defer or refer an oath, and generally do those things for which the law requires a special mandate.

Both the procurator and the advocate can be repelled by the judge, by a decree given, either from office or at the instance of a party, yet for a just cause.

§ 1. Advocates and procurators can be removed by the one by whom they were constituted, with the obligation of paying the honoraria owed to them saved; but in order that the removal obtain effect, it is necessary that it be intimated to them, and, if the joinder of issue has already occurred, that the judge and adverse party be made more certain concerning the removal.

§ 2. Once definitive sentence has been issued, the right and office of appealing, if the mandating person does not refuse, remains with the procurator.

§ 1. Each is forbidden to buy the lawsuit, or to make an agreement for himself concerning an immoderate profit or a vindicated part of the litigated thing.

§ 2. If they have done these things, the agreement is null, and they can be fined with a monetary penalty by the judge or by the Ordinary; the advocate moreover can both be suspended from office, and also, if he is a recidivist, be removed and deprived of title.

Advocates and procurators who, because of gifts or promises or any other reason, have betrayed their office are to be repelled from office and, besides reparation of damages, are to be punished with a monetary fine or other suitable penalties.