MY VISIONS FOR THE BAR COUNCIL

PLEADING RIGHTS

In France, the pleading fee is a financial charge collected by lawyers. This fee is allocated to lawyers for each decision rendered, whether by pleading or by filing files before most courts.

In Cameroon, the pleading fee can be adapted and called pleading stamp. It will be a mechanism by which all the documents initiating proceedings in civil, commercial, criminal or social matters will bear a stamp issued by the Bar Association.

In this case, the State will be able to authorize the Bar Council to print a stamp that will be sold to the lawyers; this stamp will be affixed on the requests, the summonses, the amplifying memoranda, the complaints in other words on all the documents initiating proceedings initiated by the lawyers.

The affixing of the pleading stamp could even be the condition of admissibility of the acts at the clerk’s office.

This stamp can be sold at 500 FCFA, 1000 FCFA or even 2000 FCFA depending on the agreement between the State and the Bar Council.

The advantage of this stamp affixed on the documents initiating proceedings is that it will generate enormous sums of money which can lead the State to leave the management of the commissions of office in criminal matters to the President of the Bar.

At that moment, the commissions of office will be managed by the President of the Bar through a more comfortable remuneration.

The sums of money generated by this stamp allow the President of the Bar to increase the rates of remuneration and to facilitate the payment to the lawyers who are more and more disinterested in the ex officio commissions. 

It should be noted that this stamp duty will only be charged for proceedings initiated by lawyers.

In short, the pleading right or the pleading stamp will allow to replenish the coffers of the Order, especially to revive the ex officio commissions which have been for most of the lawyers, the place par excellence to get familiar with the bar or more precisely to learn how to plead.

Imagine the number of stamps for all requests, summonses, complaints etc. in all the jurisdictions of the courts of appeal and the Supreme Court

This stamp duty for all the documents initiating proceedings before all the jurisdictions in Cameroon can be evaluated at the sum of 800 million to 1 billion FCFA per year.

With this pleading right, the mechanisms of procuring the resources of the Bar will no longer be only the dues of the lawyers but this fee. 

NB: to implement it, the Council of the Bar and the President of the Bar would have to lobby the authorities.

ON THE NECESSITY OF THE MONOPOLY OF LAWYERS IN COURT PROCEEDINGS

Before I was sworn in as a trainee lawyer and after I was admitted to the Bar, the monopoly of representation of the parties in court was always announced by the candidates for the Bar but never realized.

The question we should ask ourselves is whether the candidates for the Bar have indicated how to proceed in order to bring the public authorities to grant this monopoly of representation in court.

Should the monopoly that has been demanded for ages be total or partial?

Can the public authorities grant us this monopoly on all the matters considering the state of indigence of the majority of the litigants?

The objective answer to all these questions will allow the Bar Council and the President of the Bar to have the necessary elements to tackle this sea serpent.

However, in other African countries, especially those of the West, the monopoly has been granted to lawyers as indicated in article 5 of the regulation n°05/CM/UMEOA relating to the harmonization of the rules governing the profession of lawyer.

In the areas to be considered, I propose that the monopoly be partial in the following matters

• Monopoly of lawyers in criminal and administrative matters;
• Litigation in OHADA business law;
• Litigation of the CEMAC
• Litigation in civil and commercial matters at the Court of Appeal
• In these main areas, lawyers must represent the parties in court.

The ministry of a lawyer must be compulsory before all courts and in all proceedings for legal entities.

Before any court and in any state of proceedings, the representation of natural persons must be ensured by lawyers in the areas indicated above.

In order to obtain this long-awaited and never obtained monopoly, it would be necessary to make continuing education compulsory in order to acquire expertise in certain fields of law.

With this monopoly, the volume of lawyers’ activities will be increased and each lawyer will be able to make a living out of his profession and to set up shop everywhere in the country.

The monopoly can only be granted to lawyers if the elected President of the Bar and the Council of the Bar use their address book to convince the public authorities with relevant, objective arguments, without any double talk, that the ministry of the lawyer is compulsory for the quality of justice by taking the commitment that continuous training will be compulsory.

The President of the Bar must be the one who has the capacity to meet all the competent authorities in order to move the lines. He must be the one who masters all the intricacies of our administration to bring the public authorities to understand the necessity of the lawyers’ monopoly for the quality of our justice.

THE FORMATION CONTINUES

Our amended organic law must include a provision on the obligation of continuing education throughout the exercise of our profession as a lawyer.

Continuing education must be compulsory for lawyers registered on the roll of the bar association, it will ensure the updating and improvement of the knowledge necessary for the practice of the profession for the lawyer.

The nature and duration of the activities likely to be validated under the continuing education obligation will be determined either by our law or by our internal regulations.

The council of the order will be responsible for determining the methods according to which continuing education must be accomplished.

What will be the content of this continuing education

• Lawyers will have a wide range of activities to complete their training; We can retain as continuing education:
• Participation in training activities of a legal or professional nature provided
• Training seminars sanctioned by a certificate
• Participation in training provided by lawyers or universities
• Assistance at colloquia, conferences of a legal nature related to the professional activity of lawyers
• The publication of works or manuals of a legal nature How many hours do you have to work to fulfill your continuing education obligation?, The training should last 24 hours in one year Publications of a legal nature for lawyers will be equivalent to 48 hours of training over two years How can the Council of the Order exercise / control the obligation of continuing education Lawyers must, no later than January 31, declare to the council the conditions under which they have met this obligation of continuing education during the past year. Supporting documents useful for verifying compliance with this obligation must be attached to this declaration. What will lawyers who do not have the means for continuing education do? Continuing education for lawyers without financial means must be carried out by the bar association council. To do this, if the stamp duty on the documents initiating proceedings is accepted by the government, the sums generated by this fee will have to finance the continuing training of lawyers as well as their health insurance. Similarly, the elected president and the council of the Order will have to lobby so that the Order has other resources besides membership fees.

Patrice UM

Lawyer/ Barrister