TUTORIAL 2 QUESTION 1

DUTIES OF COUNSEL BASED

ON THE ARTICLE OF THE
HONEST LAWYER

Veeran Clement M.Kumar

Ong Swee Siong 1122701780
Lee Jun Zhe 1122702451
Harkiren Kaur A/P Baldev Singh
1122701474
Farah Farhana Hassan 1122702304
Chong Jun Min - 1131119202

1. HONEST & NEVER DISTORT THE

TRUTH
Lawyers must be honest with his client, his opponent and
also with the court. Above all, he must be honest to himself.
He has a duty to his client, but he also has duty to the
court which means a duty to the cause of justice itself. He
must never suppress or distort the truth.
E.g: A diffi cult question arises when the lawyers get to
know during the trial itself that his client is guilty. If he
then publicly announces his withdrawal from the case, it
may seriously prejudice his client. It may therefore be his
duty to his client to stay in the case, but his conduct of the
case must be regulated by the higher duty not to be a party
to a lie.
He must not, assert that his client is innocent, for he knows him to
be guilty. He must not suggest that the witnesses for the
prosecution are telling the truth.
All he can do is to urge that the prosecution have not proved their
case; for even the worst criminal is entitled to require the case to
be proved against him.

2. DUTY NOT TO WITHHOLD

AUTHORITIES
You must tell the truth, whether it hurts your case or not.
Lawyers are required to make full disclosure of all the
binding authorities relevant to a case as they have a
duty to assist the court.
Although the documents may hurt your case, you must
not keep them back: everything must be put before the
Court to enable it to do justice.
E.g: Sometimes it happens that at the very last moment
before the trial, the client suddenly puts a document into
the hands of Counsel which ought to have been
disclosed. The duty of Counsel is forthwith to show it to
the other side even though it hurts his own case.
- Copeland v Smith Buxton LJ and Brooke LJ were
highly critical of advocates who did not assist the court
with relevant authorities. It is essential for advocates to
keep themselves up to date with relevant authorities.

3. FAIR
The country expects it and the Judge require the
Lawyers to be fair.
No counsel is allowed to suggest to the Judge what the
sentence should be.
No counsel must attempt by advocacy to infl uence the
Court towards a more severe sentence.
E.g: No counsel should allowed to bring up things in
the accuseds past history which are to his discredit,
unless the accused man exposes himself to it.
- Md. Samsudin Ismail v Tan Yeow Hwa Counsel
who represents litigants in court should not attempt
to spilt words into distinct segment and take the court
on a wrong route to suit his or her agenda just to
sway the court to give a decision in his or her favour.

4. CONCERN ABOUT THE LAWS AND

NOT THE FEES
Lawyers need to advice their clients to go to law
when they know or ought to know he had best stay
out of it. (not to go to law unless he must).
Lawyers must give his best to his client without any
thought of his private gain.
E.g: He must not let his views be infl uenced by the
thought that, if he advises a fi ght, he will earn fees in
the course of it. Instead, he must state the chances
of success or failure without regard to his own
position.

5. COURAGE
Every counsel for an accused man must spare no
eff ort to defend him, no matter how much public
opinion is against the man, no matter how distasteful
the task is, no matter how inconvenient to himself,
and no matter how small a fee.
- Rondel v Worsley It is a duty of the counsel to
act fearlessly, to raise every issue, advance every
argument
and
asks
every
question,
however
distasteful, which he thinks will help his clients
case.

6. COURTESY
Lawyers must not only treat the Judge with courtesy,
but he must also treat his opponent with courtesy and
the witnesses too.
Lawyers must maintain good manners.
Many cases have been won by courtesy and lost by
rudeness.