Recent events have brought to light how serious unethical legal practice is. The surreptitiously recorded audios in which two lawyers interact with a client and explain how the justice system works in Chile are devastating. The expressed need to bribe public officials and that this is the way to solve problems is extremely rude.
At the same time, the ruling of an Oral Court that sentenced a lawyer who appropriated the assets of his elderly client to six years in prison was known.
Gendarmerie statistics from 2019 showed that in a period of four years, more than eighty lawyers had been arrested for bringing drugs while visiting their clients deprived of liberty.
All of the above in a scenario in which – according to OECD reports – only 15% of Chileans trust their justice system: along with Ukraine, the lowest of the countries measured.
Trust that is even lower than that of other Latin American countries such as Mexico, Colombia, Brazil or Peru.
In this scenario – then – it is certainly relevant to question the importance of the ethical training of legal professionals, which we have failed so much in this regard and what contribution can be made from universities to improve this weakness.
Control for any lawyer
Indeed, the training of legal professionals must have a strong ethical imprint, which must be translated – without a doubt – into the way of identifying possible conflicts of this type and how to resolve them.
The determination of key principles on loyalty with the client, with the counterparty and with the court, conflicts of interest and the management of the publicity of the cases, are pressing issues from which it is possible to raise certain guiding principles of always difficult actions in the case by case.
All of this, in addition, in an extremely complex scenario in recent decades of a considerable increase in the number of professionals who have the title to practice and the universities that teach the degree – on the one hand – and the greater complexity of the existing conflicts. in which the Law has begun to fill spaces that -traditionally- were more typical of public policy, in others.
In my opinion, two elements seem fundamental to move forward: the existence of mandatory ethical control for any lawyer and not only for members who are ideally based in a jurisdictional body with a procedure that is not so complex and summary.
Along with this, there must be a greater decision from the Prosecutor’s Office and the courts to rigorously sanction the exercise of the profession when it constitutes a crime or causes civil damages, in line with the recently issued ruling.
All of this, by the way, must be reinforced by the ethical control that bar associations once had, but which, given the limited membership that exists today, ends up losing effectiveness.
The academy and the union should reflect deeply on how to improve performance and ethical control so severely questioned in recent years and that the “Hermosilla Case” has made so evident and relevant.
2024-02-20 11:50:45
#Hermosilla #case #ethics #Control #lawyer
