Do lawyers obey the law? They must. You cannot argue in court about the rightness of a legal principle unless you are prepared to acknowledge its rightness. And obey it. But as there are bad doctors and bad engineers, some bad lawyers, and some bad judges (one hopes a small number) twist the law beyond recognition. That is ethically wrong. For it shows an intent to disobey the spirit of the law. Such lawyers ...
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Blog , English , For Lawyers
What is the difference between ‘evidential burden of proof’ and ‘legal burden of proof’?
At first sight, these two concepts seem identical. They are not. If you wish to make litigation your career, you need a sound understanding of these concepts. It is not that difficult, really.
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Blog , English , For Lawyers
Is the ex-Chief Justice right? Should the AG be appointed from the Judicial & Legal Services?
In an article entitled, ‘Is the new AG choosing his briefs like a private lawyer? [26 June 2018]’ the ex-Chief Justice, Tun Abdul Hamid Mohamed, suggests that the current Attorney General is unsuited to his job. He says, ‘When Thomas accepted the post of Attorney General, like it or not, by law, [he] is also the public prosecutor. He cannot say he only wants to be Attorney General but not a public ...
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Long ago, Lat drew a cartoon. It compared a study on mosquitoes carried out by a foreign scholar and a Malaysian one. The foreign scholar is shown with a stack of books (volumes 1 to 5). The Malaysian scholar has a wafer-thin manuscript with an arrow that says: ‘Ini adalah nyamuk.’ Do you remember that? Lat should come out of retirement! That just about sums up the state of our schools. Most ...
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I was once asked to answer three questions at once. I think it was on Quora. Since then a lot of people have expressed interest in the questions and the answers I gave. I reproduce them here: Q-1: How difficult is it for a lawyer to set up his own firm? Q-2: How do lawyers advertise their services? Q-3: How do they attract clients to their firms? These were all questions related to the life ...
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There is a gem of a case on Islamic probate law. It was decided in 1994. For some reason it has not been reported. It is a great mystery. This is the story of that case A Muslim man, Ainuddin, died in 1944. As a Muslim he did not leave a will. He had sons and a daughter. Under pre-Independence law, Ainuddin’s residual property passed to his biological children, but in fixed ...
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You have seen the articles emerging from this blog since 09 May 2018 — or ‘5-0-9’ as I called the GE14 (the date of May 09th, 2018). There is a story behind these articles. Their production and timing were wholly accidental. In the years to come the people may become quiescent. They may, once again, feel re-assured behind their closed doors. But these issues filled the night of 5-0-9, like night-tracer shells from artillery. ...
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What happens when judges, bending like reeds in the wind, carry out the biddings of their political masters? Something extraordinary has to be done. Corrupt judges, past and present, ought to be publicly impeached. Can it be done? How?
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Can a judge say in his letter of resignation, "I resign, but the effective date is two months hence"?
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Blog , English , For Lawyers
Why the unholy rush to appoint a new Chief Justice and President of the Court of Appeal?
We are at it again. If a person makes an error once, one can attribute it to a lapse of judgement. If a person makes the same error repeatedly, something is not right. When the outgoing Chief Justice of the Federal Court (‘CJ’) and the President of the Court of Appeal (‘PCA’) were appointed there was widespread discontent with the process of their appointment. The complaint was that they had been appointed ...
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