According to Decree 4085 of 2011, Article 2nd, the National Agency for Legal Defense has as its main objectives the design of strategies, plans and actions aimed to comply with legal defense policies defined by the Colombian Government; the formulation, evaluation and diffusion of policies regarding the prevention of anti-juridical conducts of public officials, public employees and public institutions; anti-juridical damage and the extent of its effects; and the management, coordination and execution of actions assuring the proper implementation of all these in order to defend the litigious interests of the Nation.
Litigious interests of the Nation must be understood as follows:
a) Those in which a national public institution is involved due to its part in the process.
b) Those related with processes in which an act issued by a public authority or national public institution has been sued, such as laws and administrative acts or processes in which an interpretation or application is controverted.
c) Those related with processes in which the conduct of a national public official or employee is controverted.
d) Those related with processes of regional and international scope in which the nation has been sued.
e) All others determined by the Agency Directive Council within the guidelines and priorities established by the national government.
AGENCY FUNCTIONS:
The National Agency for Legal Defense will comply with the following functions:
1. In relation to policies:
a. Formulate, apply, evaluate and diffuse policies regarding the prevention of anti-juridical conducts of public officials, public employees and public institutions; anti-juridical damage and the extent of its effects, the public legal defense and the effective protection of the litigious interests of the State, as well as the design and creation of strategies, plans and actions on this matter in order to prevent anti-juridical conducts from public officials, public employees and public institutions, anti-juridical damage and the extent of its effects.
b. Design and propose strategies, plans and actions for using alternative mechanisms for conflict resolution.
c. Design and propose strategies, plans and actions when taking part in legal processes in which the Nation or national public institutions are involved either as plaintiff or defendant or if they have to intervene.
d. Design and propose strategies, plans and actions for the fulfillment of sentences and conciliations, and the recovery of public money by means of repetitive action.
e. Design and implement, in coordination with the Ministry of Treasury and Public Credit, strategies, plans and actions aimed to alleviate the negative effects associated to controversies that, because of their fiscal relevance, are considered a priority.
f. Design and propose insurance policies for public servants and public institutions.
g. Coordinate the application of policies and strategies for the prevention of anti-juridical damage, the effective legal defense of the State, the reduction of patrimonial responsibility and the recovery of public resources working together with national public institutions.
2. In relation to defense coordination:
a. When necessary, elaborate protocols and guidance for the proper management of the legal defense of the State.
b. Elaborate instructional materials for an integral application of prevention and conciliation policies as well as those related with the Management Information System.
c. Share any jurisprudential changes, changes in norms and changes in prevention and legal defense policies, relevant to public servants and contractors involved in the legal defense of the State.
Protocols and guidelines for managing the legal defense of the State, if any, will be binding for lawyers that legally represent national public institutions, unless that any justifiable reasons exist to not accept them, and for which proper evidence must be registered. The guidelines for the integral application of prevention and conciliation policies as well as those related with the Management Information System, will be binding for national public institutions.
3. In relation to the exercise of representation:
a. Assume as plaintiff, intervening, attorney or agent, and any other condition that law provides, the legal defense of public institutions, and act as intervener in legal proceedings of any kind in which interests of the nation are involved, according to their relevance and with the following criteria: the amount of the claim, interest or patrimonial impact or fiscal impact of the lawsuit, number of similar processes, the reiteration of factual fundamentals that gives origin to dispute or conflict, or legal aspects involved in it; the matter or objects of the process itself and the legal significance of it for creating or modifying a jurisprudential precedent.
b. Designate representatives, officials or leaders to comply with the function stated in (a).
c. Coordinate or assume the legal defense of the State in processes before international judges and organisms, according to regulatory treaties and agreements except controversies cited in (d).
d. Support the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Tourism in the defense of international commercial disputes and in processes at international instances in regard to investment related obligations contained in international treaties.
e. Support public institutions with the creation and structure of technical committees to assist them in order to gain a better functional performance during processes before international instances.
f. Give instructions to interpose, in appropriate cases and if deemed convenient, an action of protection against convictions issued to public institutions, as well as to assist in those brought by the institutions themselves.
g. Exercise the power of persistence for selecting action of protection sentences for review by the Constitutional Court in terms provided by the law.
h. Take part in national public institutions conciliatory committees, when deemed necessary, with voice and vote, and act as a mediator in conflicts between national public institutions.
i. Track proper exercise of the repetition action of national public institutions and give them instructions to, according to law, establish repetition actions for sentences payment and conciliations of compensatory nature caused by malicious intentions of state agents, or interpose them directly when a public institution do not exercise them.
