2017-08-16

Gaza

Gaza

The Honorable Vice-Chairman and Members of the Bar Association Council/ Gaza,

Subject: the violation of the code of ethics of the legal profession

MUSAWA – The Palestinian Center for the Independence of the Judiciary and the Legal Profession extend their warmest greetings to you, noting that we have received a written complaint on 07/08/2017 from the citizen Suzan Saeed Al-Masri, stating that as a consequence of the end of her marriage contract with her former husband she waived proceedings of “house furniture, deferred dowry, and gold” before Gaza’s Sharia Court. She hired lawyer …………… to represent her in the said proceedings.

The complainant added that she hired lawyer ……………, and paid the agreed fees. However, her lawyer was careless to not complete the implementation procedures of the judgment obtained by the complainant in the said case of "Gold" from the Magistrate Court of........... on 24/11/2010 to date.

In her complaint, the complainant also stated that lawyer ……………, as her representative, was authorized to collect the amounts of money her ex-husband deposited in the court’s fund, as evident in the financial records of the Court of First Instance in ……………., where it is stated that her divorcé had paid the full amount (3,000 JD), but according to her complaint her attorney denied the receipt of the full amount and argued that her ex-husband had not paid the full amount of money because he is a security officer and he had financial loans, and that it is not possible to detract what is worth a quarter of his salary to pay the amount owed. The complainant confirmed that the said attorney gave her only an amount of 2,400 JD out of the total amount he had received in his power as attorney, which is equal to 3,000 JD.

As an independent non-governmental watchdog organization, MUSAWA stresses its belief in the fact that an accused person is innocent until proven guilty, without prejudice to the said attorney himself or any of his rights. 

The statements of the complainant, if true, imply a distortion of the role of lawyers and represent a departure from the rules of professional conduct, in addition to the fact that this is a crime punishable by law.

Accordingly, we kindly ask you to act upon this memo by taking the appropriate legal action, including giving the complainant permission to lodge a case against the said attorney and announcing the findings of investigation and administrative decisions duly made by your respected council regarding the matter.

With all due respect, 

Issued on 16/08/2017

Chairman of MUSAWA’s Board of Directors

Adv. Yasser Jabr

Attachments:

- A copy of the complaint lodged by the citizen Suzan Al-Masri.