The right to counsel is a central safeguard of due process because criminal proceedings place individuals in a structurally weaker position than the state. Indonesia’s Law Number 20 of 2025 on the Criminal Procedure Code (KUHAP), effective from 2 January 2026, expands the statutory framework governing notification, accompaniment, professional rights, confidentiality, examination records, legal aid, and mandatory appointment. This article examines whether the new framework secures effective defense rather than merely formal representation. It employs normative legal research using statutory, conceptual, and case approaches, with Law Number 8 of 1981 as a historical comparator and current Constitutional Court litigation as a contextual source. The analysis identifies five interdependent guarantees of procedural equality: early access, meaningful participation, independence, information access, and effective remedy. Articles 31 and 32 are central because they connect prior notification with actual participation during examination, while Article 153 addresses timely access to the examination record. The article also distinguishes the professional status of an Advocate from the legal-aid function of a Pemberi Bantuan Hukum and develops a judicial compliance matrix for assessing material prejudice and available responses to non-compliance. The proposed model treats counsel as an active procedural safeguard and provides a doctrinal framework for evaluating whether mandatory legal assistance produces effective defense