Can a lawyer represent two defendants in a criminal case?
Can a lawyer represent two defendants at the same time in a criminal case?
Paragraph 2 of Article 38 of the Supreme People's Court's Interpretation on the Application of the Criminal Procedure Law of People's Republic of China (PRC) clearly stipulates:
A defender shall not defend two or more defendants in the same case who have not been dealt with but whose criminal facts are related.
Measures for punishment of illegal acts of lawyers and law firms
Article 7 A lawyer who has any of the following circumstances is an illegal act of "acting as an agent for both parties in the same case, or acting as an agent for legal affairs with conflicts of interest with himself and his close relatives" as stipulated in Item (3) of Article 47 of the Lawyers Law:
(1) Acting as an agent or providing relevant legal services for parties with conflicts of interest in the same civil litigation, administrative litigation or non-litigation legal affairs;
(2) Acting as a defender or agent for the defendant and the victim at the same time in the same criminal case, or acting as a defender for two or more criminal suspects and defendants at the same time;
(3) Providing legal services to the parties who have conflicts of interest with the consulting unit during their tenure as legal advisers;
(4) Lawyers who have served as judges and prosecutors act as agents and defenders to undertake cases handled by the original courts and procuratorates;
(5) A lawyer who has served as an arbitrator or is still serving as an arbitrator, acting as an agent to undertake the cases handled by the arbitration institution where he previously served or currently serves.
From what I have compiled, we can know that a defender can't defend more than two defendants in the same case at the same time, that is, a lawyer can't represent two defendants at the same time, but a defendant can have two agents.