The pathetic Malaysian lawyers
I am writing this piece on lawyers not only from personal experience but from numerous comments from all walks of life. I am not going to mention names at least not in this piece though I wish I could, at some time in future.
Lawyers are a group of people with a small amount of education perhaps a mere three years. Yet they call themselves professionals. Well I give them that privilege to be referred to as professionals though I wonder if they themselves know and behave as professionals.
If you visit any of the courts in the country be it magistrates court, sessions court, High courts or even the Supreme court or the Federal court you will see a whole array of lawyers dressed in black. It is the black coverings that make me wonder most of the time. Why the dark coverings ? From an everyday point of view black dress is symbolic of mourning, sadness, death. Black is the color of dirt and all things evil. It hides the unclean clothes, be it from dirt, filth or what you may. I have often asked myself whether the black clothes worn by lawyers make them into what they are not meant to be. Are thy hiding themselves from the unclean character or is it the black itself has molded themselves into all things wicked or bad or unclean.
My experience with lawyers as well as that of many people are certainly far from anything good but indeed disappointing.
If you take any lawyers be it the junior or the senior ones the one and only character that stands out straight on our faces is their almost desperate desire to devour us whole sale. They act like sharks in its full form. Their one and only desire in life is to see how they could trap you into their cages and then slash you, cripple you and I will go further to say they would not even mind mutilating you till you would have lost all sense of balance and rhythm of life. When I say trap you, I mean they would use all their legal tricks to charm and connive you into believing that they are their saviors of injustice and that they would even challenge any judge to prove them otherwise. When I say slash you, cripple you and mutilate you I mean it is the extent of physical harm and mental anguish they can cause by their exorbitant fees that can run into 100's of thousands of Ringgit that can spread into one's life time to settle.
This humpty dumpty exercise is all done in closed chambers which they rightfully call their consultation chambers. After having convinced them that they are their only savior in this world to fight for their justice then they would go on to the topic of fees. They would start with an opening salvo of let us say RM 10,000 which gives them the room to flirt around the bargaining chip. The poor and desperate may agree to raise some of the demanded sums of money. Some may agree to raise RM3,000 or some 5,000.00 just to satisfy the unquenchable thirst for the Ringgit by the shark in the guise of the lawyer. But woe be the poor litigant's soul for he hopes he could receive his justice in the court. Little did he realize that a month or later from that day would be the beginning of his financial calamities. The litigant would then receive a call from the lawyers's office that he is wanted by the lawyer for an urgent meeting to discuss the case. The lawyer would then breathe down a frightening scenario on the case to the frightened litigant and would then demand another, let us say, RM10,000 before he could go to court. The litigant would then plead and beg on the fees and the all powerful lawyer would refuse or may throw a small discount and the frightened litigant would then run out looking for cash from relatives, friends or from loan sharks and then go and pay the money to the lawyer.
The truth of the matter is that the case maybe far away before it could be even set for mention in court. But the lawyer puts to him in such a away as if it is set for full trial tomorrow morning. The truth is that he wanted to pay for the down payment to change his car to a bigger model. Or he would have ordered for a new and expensive suit to attend a banquet dinner at a five star hotel. There have been instances wherein after three months the lawyer would demand for RM30,000 when the original fee agreed by the lawyer was RM10,000 There is an instance wherein I know personally of a lawyer who demanded for RM150,000 after six months on taking the brief after agreeing to charge RM10,000.00 The lawyer made it sound as if he is the one and only one who could fight for justice in this country as far as that case was concerned. Of course the litigant had no choice but to use nasty language on the lawyer and dismissed him, but in the process he lost the initial sum of RM10,000 paid to the lawyer when the case was merely filed and had not been set for trial. The lawyer pocketed RM10,000 while the litigant lost that money and ended up paying more money trying to engage another lawyer. This apparently is what happens all the time among most litigants and there is little or no hope for any from the sharking activities of lawyers. Why? I can't understand. Why have they become totally oblivious to human feelings or human care.
I would reckon lawyers are a desperate lot as they want to be seen living in luxurious houses, driving around in expensive cars and dining in expensive hotels. This has been a trend set by the senior lawyers and therefore any junior lawyer develops the same character devoid of any decency or conduct.
As I see it the professional decorum or the professional behavior of lawyers seem to be non existent. Where is the care and the concern for a litigant looking for justice. The injustice starts from the lawyers office itself and really not from the party that caused the injustice for which he hoped to take it to the courts. Where is the sense of financial means of an ordinary citizen? The country' s per capita income should be the yardstick to pay for his expenses.
What is per capita income?
Per capita income means how much each individual receives, in monetary terms, of the yearly income generated in the country. This is what each citizen is to receive if the yearly national income is divided equally among everyone. Per capita income is usually reported in units of currency per year.
According to Aliran Monthly 2004:2
Malaysian household income distribution as quoted in the Eighth Malaysia Plan, 75 per cent of Malaysian households earn below RM3,000 per month and 25 per cent of households earn below RM1,000 monthly.
If the per capita income of a Malaysian is RM36,000, then I would reckon that the average citizen would be earning about RM3,000 per month. How much of the RM 3000/- is left after paying for his essential payments that includes, food, clothing, car loans, housing loans , utilities etc etc is anyone's guess. There is nothing much less. However, if the lawyer pretends to be unaware of the citizens financial means and that he expects HIS CLIENT to go and fetch such ridiculous sums which is beyond his means then the profession is made up of inhuman creatures who call themselves lawyers. They obviously received the wrong training and they have abdicated all professional courtesies and decency.
What happened to their professional ethics? Has it become non existent? I would think so. I remember being told by a lawyer a few years ago that all he needs is about three cases a month and he is set for life as he knows he can continue milking them for a very long time. Believe me it was disgusting. The lawyer never solves anyone's problem. He will never do that. His intention is to keep the files open and not closed for as long as possible so that he can continue milking the clients. That is his one and only goal in life. The number of open files in his office. The question is this. Do lawyers provide justice. The answer is absolutely no. They don't provide any justice as that is not their duty. They merely argue in the court of law on behalf of their clients and it is left to the magistrates or the judges to decide on the issue of providing justice. The judges or the magistrates would base their decision on the points submitted by the lawyers.
How many lawyers in Malaysia truly submit correctly on behalf of their clients. The answer again is debatable. How many lawyers prepare 100% their client's defense? I personally know of lawyers who prepare their client's case two hours before the case hearing. THIS MEANS HE WOULD HAVE NEVER OPENED THE FILE TILL TWO HOURS BEFORE THE HEARING. I also know of lawyers who go to court under the influence of alcohol. Their breath stinks of alcohol as they step into the court chambers. They come out smiling as if they have done a stunning performance when all and sundry knows it was a sham performance with no proper defense submissions. The judgment pronounced by the judge is obviously against his client.
The point of contention here is that, to the lawyer the judgment means nothing. Nothing at all. He has everything to gain and nothing to lose. He has already collected his money in full and plenty from his client. He has more to collect by losing the case as the client will be forced to pay more to continue with the appeals till he loses till the very end at the Federal court.
I hope I have explained well till now on the ridiculous state of litigants. To the litigant all he wants is just some justice from the court. Nevertheless, it is the lawyer that has sealed his fate altogether. The injustice started at the point of the lawyer taking conduct of the case in his law office. There after it is the commencement of injustice till the end of the case which may never see the light of the day.
Can this sharking activities be put to an end. The answer is yes. The bar council must be prepared to undo the wrongs though it may eat into the individual lawyer's wallet in the council.
I suggest that lawyers should only collect a nominal fee based on the per capita income of the country. The rest of his earnings should only come from the winnings of the case. This means he can take a percentage of the winnings and a percentage of the costs granted by the courts. Right now most lawyers swallow the costs ordered by the courts. Now the court orders the costs not to be swallowed shamelessly by the representing lawyers but strictly for the litigant involved. The courts should make it mandatory that all costs are to be paid in the clients name and not in the name of the legal firm so as to arrest this gross abuse and illegality. THIS IS A VERY SERIOUS MATTER AND THE GOVERNMENT HAS TO TAKE SERIOUS NOTE. Right now the lawyer charges ridiculously exorbitant fees, he swallows all the costs due to the client, and he also retains a huge chunk of the awards given to the litigant. The awards could be in the form of damages ordered by the court or on the sum claimed. Most of the time the lawyer would insist on a percentage of the sum claimed. If the claim is for RM 50,000
he would insist for 20 to 30% of this claim if he wins. This is morally and legally wrong. Yet the lawyer would persist with these illegal actions. He will never put in writing any of the conditions at the time of taking the brief or the case at hand. If you insist that he gives everything in writing then he will merely turn around and tell you to go and find another lawyer. How many lawyers would give you a WARRANT TO ACT ? I don't know of any that practices this but I know for sure this is what is expected of them as per the Legal Profession Act.
Now back to the issue of fees. I have been reliably informed that both in UK and USA lawyers take minimal fees from clients and the rest is collected from their performance in courts. In other words the harder they work the more money they earn and of course they are able to fight for justice. I have been reliably informed that in Malaysia many of the lawyers would use their influence in the newspapers to get their winning cases published in the newspapers. This means they can charge more on their next clients.
The most absurd thing is that even many of our Member of Parliaments take up cases in courts where their fees are ridiculously high ranging from RM50,000 to RM100,000. When the litigant expresses his shock and disbelief guess what is his reply. The answer would be I AM A YB SO YOU HAVE TO PAY!! Personally I find these YB's pathetic and should never see the light of the Parliament again and I will personally canvass against them at the next elections. Try calling them with your genuine grievances and I bet my last dollar they will never be around as they claim they are too busy!!
Back to the issue of fees.
In lawyer contract discussions, "contingency" usually means that the lawyer's fee is contingent (dependent) on the outcome: The lawyer gets paid if the court awards and the client collects a recovery. If there is no recovery, the lawyer does not get paid .
The above is what is absolutely needed in Malaysia. In this way the poorest and the below average income earner as well as the average income earner can seek legal remedies in court.
I would also propose that PKR which is a justice based party design a legal assistance program for all Malaysians. This can be through legal insurance underwritings for bulk insurance cover for all their members. A list of lawyers be drawn from the length and breath of the country who could subscribe to their justice for all programs. In this way the mean, the sharks, the avaricious and the greedy lawyers can be weeded out of the Malaysian society.
My final note. Does fighting for justice involve any high costs in terms of technological equipments, cost of products in use, cost of materials etc. the answer is no. In fact there is zero cost involved as far as the lawyer client is concerned, apart from the cost of utility bills, rental of premises and of course the staff salaries which could be easily recovered from the simple and made easy initial fees collected. Please don't live your life by charging excessive and unconscionable fees from the already distressed clients whose only purpose of seeking your services is to secure some justice from courts.
A CONCERNED MALAYSIAN
