(DISCIPLINARY LIABILITY FOR LAWYERS IN SAUDI ARABIA)
Chapter one
Introduction
The legal profession occupies an importance in all civilized countries of the world because it is one of the most important reasons for preserving the rights of people and giving them the legal advice and defends them in courts. On the other hand, legal profession contributes the achievement of justice in society. The legal profession occupies in the Arab Nation a great importance because that legal consciousness of individuals is still limited. Also, the parties are unaware of the legal rules, and do not have the ability to present their arguments, and assert their rights, which requires them to find a lawyer to take over their defense in courts.
In different countries around the world, the legal profession laws determine the basic duties that the lawyer must abide at the time of the exercise of this profession. If those duties are violated or the lawyer committed one of the Disciplinary violations, it is subjected to the disciplinary liability. Legal profession laws vary in identifying the Disciplinary liability and the power that they have jurisdiction, and the guarantees enjoyed by the lawyer at the disciplinary trial procedure. The research will discuss the subject of disciplinary liability of the attorney under the legal profession law in Saudi issued in Oct15, 2001. The research will also identify this liability in some of the Arab countries in the laws of comparative law.
The researcher will show the importance of the study for the disciplinary liability, what are the objectives of the study, what methodology the researcher will follow and what are the limits of his research.
The importance of the study:
Although the existence of previous studies and research that addressed the issue of legal profession in Saudi Arabia from different sides, they concentrated mostly on explaining the codes, determine the conditions of the attorney’s license. They also concentrated on the attorney’s rights, as well as the historical aspect of the legal profession. The researcher has searched for researches and studies that conducted on the subject of disciplinary liability in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and compared with Kuwait and UAE, the researcher discovered that there are no researches or studies that talked about this topic, especially in Saudi Arabia. The topic (disciplinary liability for attorneys in Saudi Arabia) is one of the most important topics that all lawyers must be aware of.
The law that was issued in Oct15, 2001 relating to the legal profession did not refer to the civil liability of lawyers and criminal liability, it only mentioned and talked about the disciplinary liability. So, the researcher believes that the legal provision that talked about the disciplinary liability is one of the most important regulations in the law that was issued in Oct15, 2001. In addition, people lost their rights because of the mistakes done by lawyers. They lost their rights because they were unaware of their rights and the way to claim it. The goal of this research identifies and clarifies the disciplinary responsibilities for lawyers in Saudi Arabia, and compares it with Kuwait and UAE.
Objectives of the study:
– Define the legal profession and clarify the requirements for practicing law in Saudi Arabia.
– Clarify the lawyer’s duties and rights in Saudi Arabia.
– Explain the definition of the disciplinary liability.
– Clarifying the most important situations of the disciplinary liability that could fall on the lawyer.
– Clarify who is the authority that is responsible for suing the lawyers for disciplinary action.
– Determine who is the authority that is responsible for considering disciplinary action.
– Explain what are the procedures for the disciplinary liability.
– Clarify the penalties for the disciplinary liability that could fall on lawyer.
– Determine the ways to appeal to the disciplinary liability decisions.
Questions of the study:
– What is the definition of the disciplinary liability for lawyers?
– What is the disciplinary violation?
– What are the situations for disciplinary liability?
– What are the procedures for disciplinary liability?
– Who has the authority that is responsible for suing the lawyers for disciplinary liability?
– Who has the authority that is responsible for considering disciplinary action?
– What are the penalties that could fall on a lawyer for the disciplinary liability?
– What are the ways to appeal the disciplinary liability decisions?
