Tefo Tefo
MASERU — Local advocates are illegally appearing in court by faking attorneys’ signatures to give the impression they have instructions, a Law Society conference heard on Friday.
Attorneys told the conference that there was now general lawlessness in the legal sector.
Advocates, the angry attorneys said, were forging their signatures so they could appear in court.
At times the advocates just appear in court without instructions from the attorneys, the conference heard.
In April this year the Sunday Express was the first paper to reveal that advocates were either faking attorneys’ signatures or appearing in court without instructions at all.
It is illegal for an advocate to appear in court without instructions from an attorney.
According to the law, an advocate should not receive instructions or payments from the client directly.
Instead they get instructions from the attorney who then pays them when the client has paid.
But, as the conference heard on Friday, advocates have been breaking this law for some time now.
An advocate has to write a series of examinations before they become an attorney.
First to admit this problem at the conference was advocate Zwelakhe Mda, who retained his position as Law Society president by a one-vote margin.
“They should not collect money (legal fees) directly from clients,” Mda said.
He said advocates manipulated the system by consulting the attorneys only to secure the attorneys’ signatures so that the court papers could appear as if advocates were instructed by the attorneys.
Mda said most advocates were practising illegally.
That admission opened the floodgates for bitter complaints from the attorneys present at the conference.
“One does not just become an attorney,” said prominent attorney Haae Phoofolo.
“He has to qualify.”
“Sometimes those papers which bear our forged signatures are not well prepared,” he added.
“This impacts badly on the reputation of someone whose signature appears on such papers.”
Moshoeshoe Mokaloba, an attorney, said the forgery of signatures was common among lawyers who were new in the legal profession.
His statement angered the young lawyers who were sitting in the public gallery at the High Court where the meeting was held.
They murmured in disapproval of Mokaloba’s observation.
Salemane Phafane, a senior advocate, said almost every advocate in Lesotho was cheating the system.
“Almost every advocate in this country is practising illegally,” he said.
“It has been the practice for a long time and I think it requires attention.”
An advocate who appears in court without instructions from an attorney could be struck off the lawyers’ register. Forging a colleague’s signature is equally serious professional misconduct.
But attorneys say although this practice has been happening for years the last time an advocate was punished for that misconduct was in 1977.