Description

Professional Ethics & Practice

1. Roy is a newly qualified and recently employed advocate. A few days after reporting for work he was summoned to the Senior Partner’s office. The Senior Partner handed to Roy a brief about a case that was coming up the following day in court. Their client Mteja Asiyechoka has given firm and mandatory instructions about how his case is to be conducted.

Roy is required to:

Urgently file an application for the trial judge to excuse himself. The grounds upon which the application is to be filed are that the client is apprehensive about the fairness of the trial judge who comes from the same ethnic community as the defendant  in the case.  

File an a  plication  for defense counsel to dis  ualify himself on the grounds that there is a conflict interest. The basis of the application is that the defense counse had  unsuccessfully solicited for im r Kichwa Baridi to compromise the case.

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If none of the application is granted,  We  an  appeal  and  application  of sta  pending appeal  and drag on the  of the appeal until such a time as Kichw Baridi advises that there is “more favourable litigation climate”.

Roy is far from impressed by the ferocity of Kichwa Baridi’s allegations and is concerned about the instructions given to him by his employer.

• Identify the ethical issues arising and propose a resolution of the same. (10 marks)
• Suppose Roy unsuccessfully files the applications as instructed and the trial judge found that the applications were in fact actuated by bad faith, what options does the trial judge have in sanctioning the behavior of Roy and his employer.

Support your answer with a statutory provision and illustrate your answer with a decided case.

(5 marks)