Few hours ago, I received the below email from one of my blog readers, stating his dissatisfaction and disappointment about his lawyer.Below is the full content of the email:
“Dear Mr. Eddie.I had an appointment with a lawyer today (on a lawyer and client basis) to talk about matters on a case he plans to take up. During the conversation, he was explaining to me about what he feels is the most appropriate methods and tactics to apply for the case, but he did not convinced or satisfied me and asked him couple of questions (as a client) relating to the case, the law and previous similar cases, which I had studied, but shockingly he got annoyed and started raising unpleasant words and statements to me like:
1. Since I am not a lawyer and I don’t know anything about the law or the court procedures and matters, therefore, I should not be discussing or questioning him about legal matters or how is he going about the case, because I am not qualified as a lawyer to talk to him, even though I had read many law books and cases and understood them. He also further claims “…that’s why the public sits at the back of the court and not permitted to be in the front with the lawyers, because lawyers are considered a different class of people…”.
2. But the most shocking of all, is when he told me indirectly that he was a former policeman (before he became a lawyer) and when people in the police station asked him too many questions, he usually shut them up by slapping them. Isn’t this an indirect intimidation?
I am really shocked with this lawyer’s attitude and does this mean a common man does not have the rights to defend himself in court without the aid of a lawyer or even raise any matters relating to the law, since he is not a qualified lawyer? I hope someone could clarify this for me and what action can I take against such lawyer. How to go about it?
Please send me an email at abc@yahoo.com if you need further calcifications.
Sorry, I would like to be anonymous for the meantime. I hope you understand.
Thank you.”
There are 2 issues raised in this email of which I believe many may want to know the answer:
1. “…does this mean a common man does not have the rights to defend himself in court without the aid of a lawyer”
This is an issue of “Right To Act In Court”. The short answer is YES. Any layman (mean a person who is a non-expert in a given field of knowledge, in our case law) can file an action to sue someone in court of law or to defend himself in court of law (see the exceptions below).
Based on Order 4 Rule 6 of the Subordinate Court Rules 1980 (SCR), any person (whether or not he sues as a trustee or presonal representative or in any other representative capacity) may begin and carry on proceeding in a court by a solicitor or in person.
However, there are 2 exceptions to this:
1. in normal case, a body or corporate must be represented by a solicitor, unless the law says otherwise.
2. in general case, “person under disability”, may not sue or defend by himself. Order 9 Rule 1 of SCR defines “person under disability” as person who is an infant or a patient. (Patient means a mentally disordered person within the meaning of Mental Disorders Ordinance, 1952. Infant means a person under the age of 18 persuant to Age of Majority Act 1971. see also definition of Minor (law) for other countries)
2. “…what action can I take against such lawyer?…”
This is an issue of making complain against a lawyer who acted in an unprofessional manner.
In Malaysia, legal profession is governed by the Legal Professional Act, 1976. The lawyer’s ethic is particularly set out in the Legal Profession (Practice and Etiquette) Rules 1978.
Rule 31 of the 1978 Rules states that “Every advocate and solicitor shall at all times uphold the dignity and high standing of his profession”. So if you feel that any lawyer is not acting in a professional manner, you may lodge a complaint against the lawyer for his misconduct to the Advocates & Solicitors Disciplinary Board at Medan Pasar, KL. The procedures of making the complaint against a lawyer has also been set out in the website.
Below is the contact details of the Board:
LEMBAGA TATATERTIB PEGUAM-PEGUAM
Advocates & Solicitors Disciplinary Board
8th & 9th Floor, Wisma Maran
28 Medan Pasar,
50050 Kuala Lumpur,
Malaysia.
Tel : (603) 2034 1911
Fax : (603) 2031 2163
Email : secretariat@asdb.org.my
1 response so far ↓
1 Normala // Dec 15, 2009 at 11:37 am
Complaints about lawyer are aplenty but I never imagine that it could happen to me too. However the above story is more shocking than mine. I approached my lawyer in June 09 upon getting a buyer to my house, paid the fees in advance but to my disappointment the lawyer kept his silence for almost 3 months and i assisted to chase documents from the developer office myself because he kept giving the excuse that it was not his office fault for the delay. Even the S&P delay?
He went on to shout at me even when i pointed out politely that I did my own checking with the Developer office and helped email the necessary document to him which he had claimed he never received. After finally signing the S&P in Sep 09, which he refused to attend to, (asked another lawyer colleague to handle us buyer n seller) I only receive the original S&P in Nov 09 (after chasing him again and again) today I found out that they misspelled my name in the S&P and he wants me to send it back for cancellation. I hv been trying to sell the house for years and I really dont want to lose the buyer but the lawyer seem not to care to do his job. I sold another house about the same time as this one and currently only waiting for full settlement. Up to now he keeps on giving excuses not to speak to me. Talk about professionalism, I think some of our lawyers are way behind. Dont know whether it will make matters worst for me if I complaint.
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