LJU4802 - Professional Ethics
1. • protect the professional nature of legal services by stressing the obligation
of professionals to serve justice and the public
• correct the imbalance in the relationship between the professional and the
client
• maintain public confidence
• protect the public against improper conduct or incompetence by prescribing
and guaranteeing the standards of skill, learning and conduct required
• provide practitioners and newcomers with broad parameters for making
morally responsible choices in testing situations
• ensure fair competition between legal practitioners
• discipline unprofessional behaviour: What are the functions of a code of legal
ethics?
2. - aka accusatory system
- 2 parties face each other (eg state and accused)
- role of legal representative and judge are clearly separated
- judge acts as an impartial referee, who listens toboth sides of the case and
must see to it that the various legal representatives adhere to the procedural
rules
- judge must ascertain the true version of the facts and apply the law objec-
tively to these facts
- legal practitioners focus on the client interest and do not really strive for
justice
- legal practitioners act as mouth piece for clients
- judge decides if accused is guilty
- legal representative is not independent or impartial - only listens to client
side: Adversial Legal System
3. - Adv do not accept briefs directly from clients - must be briefed by an
attorney
- attorney initiates the contract between adv and client, negotiates fees, in-
structs adv, etc
- in public interest for courts to enforce the referral rule
- advocates may not take instructions directly from lay clients and can do so
only with the intervention of an attorney - is fundamental to the advocates'
profession.
- the purpose of the referral rule is to protect members of the public because
advocates do not hold trust accounts. He added that it does so effectively
and that it is not designed or implemented in order to deny disadvantaged
citizens access to advocates or to courts. 'Moreover, the referral rule applies
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, LJU4802 - Professional Ethics
regardless of whether the advocate is a member of an established Bar or the
independent Bar: Referral rule
4. - the demise of the belief in the universal validity of a particular (Western)
life style or morality
- the celebration of difference
- the rejection of absolutes as well as universals
- the recognition of the necessity to accept uncertainty and indeterminacy as
a way of life: Post modernism is characterized by
5. (1) the time and labour required, the novelty and difficulty of the questions
involved and the skill required to properly conduct the case
(2) the customary charges by counsel of comparable standing for similar
services,
and
(3) in cases regarding money, the amount involved in the controversy and its
importance to the client: An advocate may charge only reasonable fees for ser-
vices rendered. In determining the
amount of the fee, it is proper to consider the following
6. - contract brings about the duty of confidentiality
- attorney may not divulge confidences or communications made to him by
the client in the course of their professional relationship
- applies to oral and writing
- even if client admits to a crime
- attorney's duty of confidentiality and the client's corresponding right to
confidentiality continue even after the attorney-client relationship has come
to an end. only client may waive this right.
- confidential communications made with a view to litigation as well as all
confidential communications made for the purpose of giving or receiving legal
advice or assistance, are considered "privileged info"
- to divulge this kind of info would not promote the proper functioning of
the litigation process or the legal system in its entirety: Confidentiality between
client and attorney
7. - between legal practitioner & client
- legal practitioner agrees to charge the client no fee if the claim is unsuccess-
fully prosecuted
- if successful, legal practitioner can recover a fee in excess of his normal fee
since he bears the risk of the losses occasioned by unsuccessful litigation
- enhance access to justice coz it enables litigants who would otherwise not
be able to afford it to obtain legal representation to prosecute their claims.
- contingency fee arrangements are an exception to the rule that a legal
2/8
1. • protect the professional nature of legal services by stressing the obligation
of professionals to serve justice and the public
• correct the imbalance in the relationship between the professional and the
client
• maintain public confidence
• protect the public against improper conduct or incompetence by prescribing
and guaranteeing the standards of skill, learning and conduct required
• provide practitioners and newcomers with broad parameters for making
morally responsible choices in testing situations
• ensure fair competition between legal practitioners
• discipline unprofessional behaviour: What are the functions of a code of legal
ethics?
2. - aka accusatory system
- 2 parties face each other (eg state and accused)
- role of legal representative and judge are clearly separated
- judge acts as an impartial referee, who listens toboth sides of the case and
must see to it that the various legal representatives adhere to the procedural
rules
- judge must ascertain the true version of the facts and apply the law objec-
tively to these facts
- legal practitioners focus on the client interest and do not really strive for
justice
- legal practitioners act as mouth piece for clients
- judge decides if accused is guilty
- legal representative is not independent or impartial - only listens to client
side: Adversial Legal System
3. - Adv do not accept briefs directly from clients - must be briefed by an
attorney
- attorney initiates the contract between adv and client, negotiates fees, in-
structs adv, etc
- in public interest for courts to enforce the referral rule
- advocates may not take instructions directly from lay clients and can do so
only with the intervention of an attorney - is fundamental to the advocates'
profession.
- the purpose of the referral rule is to protect members of the public because
advocates do not hold trust accounts. He added that it does so effectively
and that it is not designed or implemented in order to deny disadvantaged
citizens access to advocates or to courts. 'Moreover, the referral rule applies
1/8
, LJU4802 - Professional Ethics
regardless of whether the advocate is a member of an established Bar or the
independent Bar: Referral rule
4. - the demise of the belief in the universal validity of a particular (Western)
life style or morality
- the celebration of difference
- the rejection of absolutes as well as universals
- the recognition of the necessity to accept uncertainty and indeterminacy as
a way of life: Post modernism is characterized by
5. (1) the time and labour required, the novelty and difficulty of the questions
involved and the skill required to properly conduct the case
(2) the customary charges by counsel of comparable standing for similar
services,
and
(3) in cases regarding money, the amount involved in the controversy and its
importance to the client: An advocate may charge only reasonable fees for ser-
vices rendered. In determining the
amount of the fee, it is proper to consider the following
6. - contract brings about the duty of confidentiality
- attorney may not divulge confidences or communications made to him by
the client in the course of their professional relationship
- applies to oral and writing
- even if client admits to a crime
- attorney's duty of confidentiality and the client's corresponding right to
confidentiality continue even after the attorney-client relationship has come
to an end. only client may waive this right.
- confidential communications made with a view to litigation as well as all
confidential communications made for the purpose of giving or receiving legal
advice or assistance, are considered "privileged info"
- to divulge this kind of info would not promote the proper functioning of
the litigation process or the legal system in its entirety: Confidentiality between
client and attorney
7. - between legal practitioner & client
- legal practitioner agrees to charge the client no fee if the claim is unsuccess-
fully prosecuted
- if successful, legal practitioner can recover a fee in excess of his normal fee
since he bears the risk of the losses occasioned by unsuccessful litigation
- enhance access to justice coz it enables litigants who would otherwise not
be able to afford it to obtain legal representation to prosecute their claims.
- contingency fee arrangements are an exception to the rule that a legal
2/8
