Accounts of errant legal firms can be frozen
29/05/2007 The Star By Rashitha A. Hamid

KUALA LUMPUR: The Bar Council will freeze the accounts of lawyers found to be involved in criminal breach of trust (CBT).

Its president S. Ambiga said the council would intervene and take over the practice of a firm if there was any evidence of dishonesty.

She said an intervention secretariat had been set up for that purpose.

“We will hand it over to the disciplinary board so that cases involving errant lawyers can be dealt with swiftly,” she said during a press conference yesterday.

She also said that the police move to start investigations would be a step for the council to curb dishonesty in the profession.

”We are not going to hide anything under the carpet and we will provide any details required by police,” she said.

To regulate the lawyers, the council has a system where the accounts of legal firms are audited before their annual certificates of practice can be renewed.

If any law firm is found to be involved in a CBT case, the disciplinary board will issue it a suspension order.

On complaints about a law firm received from the public, Ambiga said the council would demand an explanation.

“If the law firm does not give any explanation in seven days and show where the money is, we will intervene and take over the firm,” she said, adding that action could be taken against a law firm within two months of the complaint being made.

Police said they have unearthed cases of another 30 lawyers involved in CBT and their names would be released soon.