Law Society suspends complaints body indefinitely

The activities and operations of the disciplinary committee of the Law Society of Botswana (LSB) have been suspended indefinitely pending determination by either the Court of Appeal or Parliament.

The action follows judgement in the case between the LSB and Tebogo Sebego that was delivered on 11th July 2016. The effect of the judgement was to declare unlawful the procedure that the Disciplinary Committee has appointed in considering complaints brought before it against legal practitioners.

Therefore, the law society has resolved to appeal the judgement in its entirety. This according to a press release from LSB. It is stipulated that ‘until the Court of Appeal delivers a contrary Judgement, then the High Court judgement remains law and is therefore binding’.  Furthermore, it is stated that amongst various findings in the High Court Judgement is one whose effect is that Sections 50 and 51 of the Legal Practitioners Act are unlawful.

In that regard, the effect of this finding is that there is now no disciplinary process in place until the Court of Appeal finds that the Sections are valid or Parliament amends the Act, states the media release. Hence the Disciplinary Committee and Council of the Law Society have both resolved to suspend all consideration of complaints until the Court of Appeal has determined the matter and or Legal Practitioner’s Act is amended.