Rep. Ray Yumul, R-Saipan, said his legislation, House Bill 16-197, is in response to a request to allow government attorneys to accept appointments from the judiciary to represent minors and indigents.
If his bill is passed into law, Section 8536 of Title 1 of the Commonwealth Code will be amended to include a duly elected public official, and/or a public employee to appear as advocate or counsel in all commonwealth courts.
The measure also seeks to amend another section to allow a CNMI licensed attorney currently employed in the government, elected or otherwise, to provide formal or informal representation for a client, constituent, or other person whom he represented for a fee or other consideration in a matter within the preceding year.
A separate section is also proposed to be amended so that a CNMI licensed attorney who is now a public servant, elected or otherwise, and a member of the CNMI bar association for at least five years “appear as an attorney before a commonwealth court of commonwealth governmental entity.”
“Attorneys practicing law pursuant to this act shall not engage in the practice of law generally but may, pursuant to this act represents minors and indigents as a sole practitioner or as a member of a partnership or competent jurisdiction,” the bill stated.
Yumul said allowing them to appear before all commonwealth courts and governmental entities “will serve as professional training from which the commonwealth will benefit and will be a cost-effective way to help reduce the need for guardians ad litem and counsel for indigent people.”
“The ethical rules concerning attorneys coupled with the oversight of the judiciary will properly protect the public interest if public officials as well as public employees who are CNMI licensed attorneys are allowed to appear as advocates or attorneys in the courts of the commonwealth and before governmental entities,” said Yumul.
