Lawyer gave con man his first
court case
19/03/2007 The Star
KLANG: Cheated and violated! This is how a lawyer here described his
feelings for having helped a man who had masqueraded as a lawyer here for
eight months in 2004.
Gerard Lazarus said he had helped the man out by giving him a case when he
first appeared in the Klang Courts.
“It used to be a tradition here for established lawyers to give a case to a
newbie to help him start off his practice. I did that when this man started
his practice in Klang,” he said.
Lazarus welcomed Selangor Bar Committee member N. Logen’s suggestion that
lawyers be issued identity cards with their Bar registration numbers.
He added it was common to see individuals professing to be lawyers hanging
around courts and outside police stations offering legal advice to family
members of those charged with criminal offences.
“How do we know that these chaps are not bogus as well?” asked Lazarus.
Bar Council’s newly-elected chairman S. Ambiga said: “We are very concerned
over what has happened but we do not think that issuing identification cards
for lawyers is the answer as these can be forged.”
Ambiga added that the best solution would be for the public to check the
status of lawyers with the Bar Council before consulting them.
