Tutorial 1 - Ethics

4 August 2014 (Monday)

Question 1
The development of the legal profession in
Malaysia was spared many of the historical
accidents of the English heritage. Discuss.
Question 1 answer
Prior to the independence in 1957, most of
the laws of United Kingdom were imported
into Malaya and either made into local
legislation or simply applied as case laws.
Thus, the law of Malaysia is mainly based on
the common law legal system.
Question 1 answer
Much of Malaysias legal history is a legacy
from Great Britain which ruled Malaya for
more than 150 years. The reception of English
law slowly evolved and developed during the
period of British colonization and became
statutory after the promulgation of the Civil
Law Enactment of 1937.
Question 1 answer
The laws of Malaysia can be classified into
two, written law and unwritten law. Written
laws are laws which have been enacted in the
constitution or in legislations. Unwritten laws
are laws which are not contained in any
statutes and can be found in case decisions.
Question 1 answer
The application of common law is specified in
ss 3, 5, and 6 of the Civil Law Act 1956 which
allows for limited application of English
common law, rules of equity, and statutes in
Malaysian civil cases where no local laws on
the area exist.
In the context of criminal law, s 5 of the
Criminal Procedure Code permits the
application of English cases where no specific
local legislation has been enacted.
Question 2
Q Discuss your understanding on the term
ethics and why it is important?

A Ethics essentially means integrity, an
ethical lawyer is the one which can be trusted
to conduct various kind of tasks with honesty
and due diligence.
Question 2
Q Based on observation, discuss on how
lawyers react to ethics and how to maintain or
improve lawyers ethics?

A Ethics must be practically practiced in daily
lives, it can simply be understood by viewing
from the clients point of view, which is to
avoid anything which is detrimental to or not
in the clients interest. To improve lawyers
ethics, we may refer to examples given by the
Malaysian Bar.
Examples
http://www.malaysianbar.org.my/disciplinary
_orders/disciplinary_orders_for_the_year_20
13_2014_december_2013_february_2014.ht
ml
(Disciplinary orders published by the
Malaysian Bar on 6 May 2014, Tuesday.)
Findings
1. Unethical lawyers tend to eat up clients
money, small amount resulted in being fined
or reprimanded, big amount resulted in being
struck off the Bar.

2. It is forever the rights of the client to file
complaint to the Bar Council if the lawyer did
anything detrimental to the clients interest.
Question 2
Q Who are responsible to enforce the ethical
standards of lawyers? Support your discussion
by referring to the relevant section and case
law.
Case 1
In Datuk M Kayveas & Anor v Bar Council
[2013] 5 MLJ 640:

Facts: The appellant solicitors were found
guilty by the Disciplinary Committee under
the Legal Profession Act 1976 of misconduct
under s 94 (3)(o) for breaching their duties as
stakeholders of monies in a conveyancing
transaction. The appellants appealed to the
Federal Court.
Case 1
S 94 (3)(o) of the Legal Profession Act 1976
provides that misconduct means conduct or
omission to act in Malaysia by an advocate
and solicitor in a professional capacity which
amounts to grave impropriety, it includes
being found guilty of any conduct which is
unbefitting of an advocate and solicitor or
which brings or is calculated to bring the legal
profession into disrepute.
Case 1
The Federal Court dismissed the appeal, the
breach of the undertaking and stakeholding by
the appellants was conducted in a
professional capacity that amounted to grave
impropriety. When solicitors held funds as
stakeholders, they held those funds as
trustees, the breach of undertaking is also a
breach of trust.
Case 2
In Ding Siew Ching v Ling Peek Hoe [2014] 2
MLJ 715:

Facts: The appellant lawyer acted for the
respondent in several sale and purchase
transactions. The respondent made a
complaint on fraud against the appellant to
the Disciplinary Board of the Bar Council. It
was found that there was a serious degree of
dishonesty and lack of professional
transparency on the appellants part.
Case 2
The Disciplinary Board found the appellant to
be in breach of s 94 (3)(d), (k), (n), and (o) of
the Legal Profession Act 1976, thus ordered
the suspension of the appellant from practice
for 18 months. The appellants appeal to the
High Court was dismissed. The appellants
further appealed to the Court of Appeal that
the punishment was excessive.
Case 2
The Court of Appeal dismissed the appeal, the
findings of the Disciplinary Board clearly
established that the appellants conduct had
amounted to professional misconduct. It was
serious and it would undermine the dignity of
the legal profession and erode the essense of
the solicitor-client relationship.
Findings
From the decided cases, lawyers themselves
are responsible to enforce the ethical
standards of lawyers.
Question 3
Q Discuss your understanding on the
importance of time management in the law
office and relate your discussion with at least
two time theft factors.

Examples of time theft
Intentionally sleeping on the job
Punching in late
Taking extra long breaks and lunch hour
Access facebook or other non-work related
websites.
Many organizations monitor their employees
in order to deter them from using their
computers provided by the organization for
personal use. Today, the leading cause of
wasting time at work has become the
Internet.

As an organization it is prudent to have
policies and procedures in place governing
personal computer usage.
Some organizations will often give their
employees the freedom to set their own work
schedules as long as they can complete their
work assignments on time.

Time management is very important as we
have only 24 hours in a day, no matter how
hard we work and we try to work we still
cannot increase the time. Thus, setting
priorities is a must.