Roshan Ram­char­i­tar

In this ar­ti­cle, we con­sid­er the func­tion of lawyers on be­half of their clients. The ba­sic func­tion of a lawyer in re­la­tion to a client is to ad­vise and rep­re­sent the client in keep­ing with the law and the eth­i­cal rules of the le­gal pro­fes­sion.

The lawyer's role

A lawyer's role in this re­gard in­cludes the du­ties to:

• ad­vise the client on the law based on what facts the client tells him

• ad­vise the client on the chance of suc­cess of any claim

• rep­re­sent those clients who re­tain him

• put for­ward on his client's be­half all that can be rea­son­ably said

• ad­vise a client on the terms of set­tle­ment of a claim.

The lawyer is not per­mit­ted to:

• tell the client what to say in court

• make up a false de­fence for a client

• present cas­es to the court which in his pro­fes­sion­al judg­ment have no mer­it

• ad­vise a client to take ac­tion which is un­law­ful

• mis­lead a court on his client's be­half

• de­cide for the client what he or she should do.

To get his in­struc­tions the lawyer may:

• ques­tion the client about the claim or case

• take a state­ment from the client

• read doc­u­ments pro­vid­ed by the client

• in­ter­view wit­ness­es who may pro­vide rel­e­vant in­for­ma­tion.

What clients should ex­pect from their lawyers Clients should ex­pect from their lawyers many things. Among these are to be:

• treat­ed with cour­tesy and re­spect

• ad­vised in clear, plain terms on the case in which the lawyer has been con­sult­ed

• ad­vised prompt­ly or with­in a rea­son­able time frame

• giv­en com­pe­tent ad­vice

• giv­en com­pe­tent ser­vice

• sat­is­fied that what­ev­er is said to the lawyer will be kept in strict con­fi­dence and not be told to any­one else with­out the client's con­sent

• rep­re­sent­ed in court when the case is called

• kept in­formed about the progress of the case

• charged a fee that is fair and rea­son­able.

The Le­gal Pro­fes­sion Act and its Code of Ethics gov­ern the way lawyers must act. If they act against the code, a client has the right to bring a com­plaint against them.

Bring­ing a com­plaint

The Dis­ci­pli­nary Com­mit­tee of the Law As­so­ci­a­tion con­sid­ers and hears com­plaints brought against at­tor­neys. A client must com­plete the nec­es­sary forms which must be sub­mit­ted to the of­fice of the Dis­ci­pli­nary Com­mit­tee lo­cat­ed on the first floor of the Hall of Jus­tice, Port-of-Spain. Peo­ple in To­ba­go can file their com­plaints at the High Court in Scar­bor­ough.

On fil­ing, the Dis­ci­pli­nary Com­mit­tee will first look over your com­plaint to de­cide if there is enough in­for­ma­tion to re­quire the lawyer to be called on to an­swer. If an ar­guable case is made out, both the per­son mak­ing the com­plaint and the lawyer will be sent a no­tice of hear­ing.

You will then have to come be­fore the com­mit­tee to give ev­i­dence to jus­ti­fy your com­plaint. You are al­lowed to have an­oth­er at­tor­ney-at-law rep­re­sent you at the hear­ing or you may rep­re­sent your­self. This col­umn is not le­gal ad­vice. If you have a le­gal prob­lem, you should con­sult a le­gal ad­vis­er.