Law Society ask Malawi Parliament for tough laws to punish crooked lawyers
The Malawi Law Society (MLS) has asked Parliament to ensure they pass tough laws to ensure clamping down on lawyers who embezzle clients’ money.
MLS president Khumbo Soko said Legal Education and Legal Practice Act has limitations to discipline the errant lawyers.
Soko said this when he appeared before Parliament’s Legal Affairs Committee in Lilongwe on Wednesday.
“The fact of the matter is that the law that we are using has got a lot of limitations which basically affects how robust and agile we can be in dealing with those particular issues,” he said.
Soko said MLS is lobbying MPs to support the enactment of piece of legislation that is going to “remove the bottlenecks” that they are facing on issues of indiscipline of lawyers.
Last year, Solicitor General Janet Chikaya Banda released a list of dubious lawyers who fleece their clients’ money and charge exorbitant legal fees to enrich themselves.
Chikaya Banda and MLS Disciplinary Committee recommended for the disbarment and prosecution of lawyer Patron Ndhlovu for swindling clients’ money totalling to K11.9 million.
Another lawyer who the committee has recommended to disbar and be prosecuted is Kajani Banda who also received K1 million on behalf of his client but failed to remit it the client.
Two lawyers Mapemphero Manda and Lucious Kwakwala will be reprimanded for conducting themselves in a fraudulent and improper manner.
Veteran lawyer and legislator Edwin Banda received money on behalf of a client and underpaid the client and the committee has recommended that the disgraced lawyer pay back the balance and that he should be suspended.
Golden Mwangulube charged his client exorbitant legal fees and as a result the committee recommended that he should be reprimanded for this act.
A social analyst said there are too many other lawyers who are involved in these kinds of deals and many clients out there are suffering while they drive in expensive cars at the expense of the clients.
“MLS should dig more, they will find that half of these lawyers are crooked,” he said.
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I couldn’t agree more. It’s well over due that crooks be it lawyers, doctors or presidents should take advantage of loopholes in the law. Further more reprimands n restitution are not sufficient pecuniary penalties MUST be add on.
Thiefs masquerading as lawyers.
MLS is very much toothless in a big way. Another crooked Lawyer is Chimwemwe Ngwira who was supposed to be debarred, but ran away and briefly settled in Botswana. Now he is back practising secretly from some place in Kanjedza, which I believe MLS and Solicitor General are aware of, but they are doing nothing about him.
Most lawyers in Malawi. The way they handle cases leaves a lot to be desired. They stick to tge book too much for meaningful and logical deliberation on issues of justice.
Ma Lawyer enawo ndi akuba.