Sanctioning a lawyer for misconduct

Feb 18, 2014 Editorial

At the outset it must be noted that this column does not intend to pronounce on Mr. Justice Rabi Sukul AJ’s innocence or guilt. That is best left to the legal luminaries which Guyana seems to have in abundance. What the reported matter provides is an opportunity to examine what anecdotal evidence suggests is a common practice among local lawyers.
It should also be noted that these comments do not refer to all attorneys and other legal practitioners as a whole, but there will be some among them who are perfectly described in these lines.
Many are the claims that some attorneys-at-law take clients hard earned money just to appear in court to make a plea for leniency. Some wags have been heard to say that they prefer to throw themselves at the mercy of the court before paying a lawyer to beg for them especially when the prosecution’s evidence case is stacked against the defendant.
There are tales of lawyers who set themselves up as omnipotent listening with half an ear to the client’s story, focusing instead on how much they can extract from the poor unfortunate in their presence. If it weren’t for the circumstances it would be funny to see clients fetching their counsel’s robe and/or briefcase to and from court.
What is all the more depressing is that some of these persons who might have barely scraped through law school are unprepared because they are too lazy to do any legwork to ascertain basic facts which could either support or contradict their client’s version of events, or engage in research for precedents to their own professional advantage.
Moreover, one possible reason these anomalies which are frowned upon in other jurisdictions seem to be the norm in this country. Hardly ever if at all do we hear of lawyers being sanctioned for unethical conduct. Sanctions are available in some places. These include private and public reprimands, suspension, and disbarment.
Apart from the private reprimand the other sanctions bring to the public’s attention the conduct for which the lawyer is being disciplined. Therefore the legal authorities have an obligation to put in place a continuing legal education program on ethics in the legal profession. Attendance at these interventions should be mandatory for offending lawyers and should be a prerequisite before reinstatement after a suspension.
Lawyers not turning up in court (and there are a lot of those around) under the excuse that they had a prior scheduled matter in another court can be a traumatic experience for the uninitiated. There has to be a reason for having a calendar and diary apart from for show. Another reprehensible practice that some who operate under the rubric of law practice is to entertain a potential client and listening to their story knowing full well that they have already accepted a retainer to represent the other party’s interest in the same matter.
This surely resides within the realm of a conflict of interest. If there is a code of ethics for attorneys here it is not widely known or adhered to across the board. When the question of lawyers’ ethics is raised there really is no distinction between criminal attorneys and those who specialize in civil litigation.
It is perhaps just as troubling for all parties in a civil suit as it is for the virtual complainant and the defendant in a criminal matter. It might be argued that the issue of deprivation of liberty hardly ever arises in a civil case the way it does in the criminal.
There are instances where lawyers paint a false but hopeful picture for their clients based upon no other consideration than the prospect of a hefty fee. These are the charlatans who should be visited with the full brunt of available sanctions for their unethical conduct.
Clients deserve no less than a frank and honest representation by their lawyer who is expected to use his/her knowledge of the law to determine his client’s chances in a court of law. Those persons who may find themselves on the other side of the law are best advised to bear in mind that their interests may not always be similar as those of their retained sworn officer of the court.

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