Under the new Legal Practitioners decree, the issuing of these certificates have been transferred from the Fiji law society to the Chief Registrar of the High Court.
Today is the deadline for lawyers to re-apply for their practicing certificate.
The President of the Fiji Law Society, Dorsami Naidu says some prominent lawyers have publicly declared they will not re-apply to practice in Fiji.
“I know that there are, who wish not to apply and practice up this regime, but we at the Law Society have left it up to individual members,” he told Radio New Zealand International.
Dorsami Naidu says regardless of the regime, lawyers are trained to represent the interests of the people, and he thinks most lawyers will be obtaining their practicing certificates so that they can do that.
On the other hand, while Fiji lawyers are awaiting their fate, a special unit within the office of Fiji’s Chief Registrar to investigate 283 pending cases against lawyers.
This follows the downgrading of the Fiji Law Society to a voluntary body under the new Legal Practitioners Decree.
The acting Chief Registrar, Ana Rokomokoti says her office receives five complaints a day on average against lawyers.
She told FijiLive that some of the complaints lodged against lawyers’ dates back to 2000.
The complaints include allegations of malpractice, misconduct, deliberate attempts to delay cases, trust fund account violations, incompetence, negligence, discrepancies over charges to clients, a failure to follow a client’s instructions and failure to communicate with clients.
