MP: Justice system must retain talent while raising ethical standards
Latvian MP Linda Liepiņa is calling for better pay and conditions to retain lawyers, judges and prosecutors, while also raising ethics concerns about officials already in office. She cited prosecutor Uldis Cinkmanis, whose bachelor's thesis was reportedly found to contain plagiarism, yet who remains in his post.
In a discussion on the quality of Latvia's justice system, Linda Liepiņa (LPV), a member of the 14th Saeima's Legal Affairs Committee, said the state must think not only about attracting young, talented lawyers, judges and prosecutors, but also about keeping them within the system. She said this requires competitive salaries, social guarantees and a professional working environment. Liepiņa noted that similar difficulties in retaining capable specialists exist in medicine and education as well.
A tougher question on ethics
Liepiņa also raised a more uncomfortable issue: whether people holding positions of responsibility always have unquestionable professional and ethical reputations. As an example, she named prosecutor Uldis Cinkmanis, claiming that plagiarism had been found in connection with his bachelor's thesis, yet he continues to work in the prosecutor's office. The MP questioned whether such individuals should hold such responsible public positions.
A different perspective
Jānis Ilsteris, a member of the "Mēs mainām noteikumus" party and a former prosecutor who was once involved in recruiting prosecutors, responded to Liepiņa's remarks. He recalled that before the introduction of a unified legal qualification exam, graduates from different universities showed very different levels of preparedness despite holding essentially equivalent diplomas. In his view, the joint exam helped raise quality standards, even though fewer people now pass it.
Regarding the specific case Liepiņa mentioned, Ilsteris pointed to a core principle of the rule of law — that everyone has the right to defend themselves in court. At the same time, he acknowledged that not everything can be resolved through legal norms alone, since questions of personal ethics and integrity remain a matter of individual conscience.
The discussion highlights two related challenges: the need for the state to compete for capable young specialists, and the need to ensure that high professional standards apply not only to newcomers but also to those already holding positions of responsibility.
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