The Chamber of Advocates has told The Malta Independent that a large number of complaints raised with respect to misconduct by lawyers in front of the Committee for Advocates and Legal Procurators relate to billing.

The Chamber of Advocates recently issued a circular to lawyers, stating that the Committee for Advocates and Legal Procurators informed the Chamber that a substantial number of complaints against lawyers going before the committee can easily be solved by lawyers giving clear explanations  to their clients.

The circular reads that a substantial number of the complaints regard professional dues, where generally a person alleges that the lawyer was unreasonable in the bill issued, or asked for payment for work not complete or only partially complete. "Aside from whether a complaint is justified or not, many a time these complaints and others similar can be avoided when a lawyer provides a clear explanation about their bill to the client, which must always include details of the services rendered and, after paying, the client must always be given a receipt," the circular read.

Commenting on the situation, the Chamber of Advocates said that the billing issues raised "may take the form of unreasonable charges in some instances or the failure to provide a proper description of work performed in others. It is the intention of the Chamber to issue guidelines / professional rules that will better guide lawyers in how best to discharge their obligations under the Code of Ethics. The idea is to ensure that what today are principle-based rules in the code of ethics, will be better set out in more specific professional ways that will determine best practice in the area."

Asked whether the eventual Lawyer's Act would put more pressure on lawyers to abide by certain regulations, the Chamber said: "The Lawyers' Act is intended to set up and establish a more effective regulatory framework, within which binding professional rules can be made and enforced in a more effective manner."

The Committee for Advocates and Legal Procurators was set up under the Commission for the Administration of Justice Act, and the circular shows a step in cooperation between the Committee and the Chamber of Advocates to reduce the number of such complaints.