Lawyers are demanding answers to their questions on the government's “mind-boggling” proposal to abolish the need for a warrant to practise law except for those who work in court. 

“It is remarkable and mind-boggling, how instead of providing legislation which raises the standards of the profession, particularly at a time when Malta’s name is being dragged through the proverbial mud, the justice minister thought it appropriate to devise a ‘provider of legal services’ who would not be warranted," said the president of the Malta Maritime Law Association, veteran lawyer Ann Fenech.

"This simply beggars belief. It is outrageous as well as insulting to us who have spent an entire career striving to improve standards and eliminate mediocrity,” Fenech told Times of Malta when contacted. 

Unwarranted lawyers, she pointed out, would not be required to follow the legal profession's code of ethics and would fall outside the remit of the Commission for the Administration of Justice. 

Lawyer Andre Zerafa said that through the creation of a distinction between warranted lawyers and other persons providing legal services, the proposed law would weaken the regulation of the legal profession and lead to a lowering of standards.

For lawyer Nicolai Vella Falzon, eliminating the need for a warrant for non-court services would render the profession largely unregulated.

“This undermines the value of our warrant and is a disservice to society, which needs to have comfort that providers of all professional services are regulated and subject to sanction. I cannot understand the haste to make such significant amendments without a thorough consultation with the profession.”

Another lawyer, Olga Finkel, described the proposal as illogical and gravely detrimental not only to the legal profession but also to the public and to Malta’s reputation.

"At the time when the profession strives to raise the standards with further regulatory safeguards, the unavoidable effect of the proposal is the substantial lowering of the standards of the legal profession, which is totally counterproductive and categorically unacceptable.” 

Chamber: all legal profession members should be regulated

The Chamber of Advocates contends that with the changes proposed, only those lawyers working in the law courts, and not those in other areas such as gaming and with companies, would be regulated.

The chamber's stand is that all members of the legal profession, whether practising in court or otherwise, are to be subjected to the same regulatory regime, code of ethics and regulator, which is the Committee for Advocates and Legal Procurators.  

“Every provider of legal services, whether practising in court or otherwise, must obtain a warrant/licence to be admitted to the profession, which must have the same eligibility criteria," a spokesperson for the chamber said.

"The chamber contends that there is no justification for differentiating between court and non-court lawyers in terms of fit and proper standards, standards of conduct, morals, honesty, integrity and ethics, standards of competence and experience,” he said. 

Justice Minister Edward Zammit Lewis argues that the proposed changes do not limit those practising law. 

“The draft does not limit, by the definition of a warrant, the professional practice of qualified persons in law. On the contrary, the warrant has always been a certificate for a person qualified in law to be able to appear and deal in our courts. This bill does not change any of this,” Zammit Lewis told Times of Malta.

He argued that the proposed changes would strengthen the status of those qualified in law and do not practise in the law courts but in various other fields.

A delegation from the Chamber of Advocates will be meeting Zammit Lewis on Monday (today) to try understand the idea behind his proposed amendments.