The Legal Service Ombud, Judge Siraj Desai says his office has a responsibility to investigate complaints about unscrupulous lawyers and to “protect public interest in relation to the rendering of legal services”.
Desai said his office must ensure fair and effective investigation of complaints of alleged misconduct against legal practitioners.
“Let’s emphasise one important factor right at the beginning, the office of the legal ombud is intended to be an independent office. Independent from government, independent from the Department of Justice.
“We are currently reliant on the Department of Justice for our funding. But in the course of the next 12 months we hope to be entirely independent and funded by the Department of Finance. That is work in progress but we have to do that because the Act emphasises that the work we do should be independent from any state intervention and state authority,” said Desai
“The second point I wish to make is just to remind all of us the office of the ombud is created by statutes and the most important part of the work of the ombud is set out in section 46 of the Legal Practice Act.
“The objectives are very clearly stated but they create a lot of confusion as well. The first objective is that the ombud has to protect and promote public interest in relation to the rendering of legal services as contemplated in this Act. In other words it is the function of ombud to make sure that public interest is protected,” he added.
President Cyril Ramaphosa recently promulgated the sections of the Legal Practice Act which deal with the appeals processes.
The Head of Legal Service, Godfrey Ramoroka said they are awaiting the Legal Practice Council to finalise the appeal process and deal with the backlog of the appeal.
“As the Ombud indicated, we will not deal with the appeal ourselves. The list created or rather section 41 that has been recently promulgated which deals with the appeals is the one that will be handled by the LPC.
“That list is there and we are waiting for the LPC to indicate to us when they are ready to start. As he[the ombud] has indicated we are in contact with them liaising with them to ensure that the process can proceed as soon as possible.
“The lay persons list that will form part of the appeal panel is already done and has already been handed over to the LPC. As to when that process will start I have indicated that we are waiting for them because it is a process that will engage their process on how they deal with them. There is already a huge backlog of matter that needs to be appealed,” he added.
