Ethics Oral Questions

ETHICS ORAL QUESTIONS
1.Define professional ethics.

In general it refers to the relationship between law and ethics (morality, being the
standard we use to determine what is right and wrong)).It can be understood in a
wide and narrow sense. In a narrow sense , Legal ethics in the narrow sense deals
with the oughts of providing legal services. In a wide sense it refers to the
relationship between law and ethics.
2. What are the duties of a legal practitioner?
i. Allegiance to the state and duty to sustain the law. Has to swear an oath of loyalty
to Zimbabwe. Positive duty to sustain the law and further the administration of
justice. Society of Advocates of SA v Fischer.
ii. Duty to client
iii.Duty to court.
iv. Duty to other legal practitioners and the profession. Politenesss,by-passing
parties.
v. Duty to third parties. A legal practitioner must not advance his clients interest at
all costs. The attorney client relationship will not protect him from fraudulent
conduct.
Statutory duties s23 Legal Practitioners Act.
3. Can a legal practitioner disobey the law?
4. What are the legal practitioners duties to the court? You are
representing X who is accused of stealing certain goods and he confessed
to you earlier that he stole those goods and he wants you to enter a plea
of not guilty. What do you do?
You enter the plea of not guilty because you have a duty towards your client to
represent him to the best of your ability and in the best way possible. However you
have a duty towards the court and you are not supposed to mislead the court by
false statements and alibis, but you can also challenge the jurisdiction of the court
or challenge the state to prove its case.
5. What are the legal practitioners duties to the client?
CONFLICT OF INTEREST
6. You are representing A and B on a criminal charge and one of them
changes and says his co-accused committed the offence. What do you do?
You instruct the one alleging against the other to look for another lawyer and apply
for a separation of trials. If separation of trials is refused then you cannot represent
both of them. This is because you might have to cross-exam the other accused and
this would be prejudicial as you already know the facts of the case.
7. You are working in a law firm and your senior partner calls from the
airport asking you to sign an affidavit he has already signed and left with
his secretary?
You do not sign an affidavit in the absence of the deponent and the deponent does
not sign in the absence of the commission of oaths. If the document is about
litigation generated in the law firm it should be commissioned by another lawyer
from a different law firm who has no interest in the matter.
8. What do you do when a client comes before you to commission a
document?
i. Ask her to produce proof of identity.
ii. Ask her to swear that the information in the document is correct or true to the
best of her ability/knowledge.
iii. She signs the affidavit in your presence.
iv. You sign, date and stamp the affidavit.
9. You are a commissioner of oaths and you were at the same university
with x and you graduated on the same day. You know X holds an LLB
degree but his certificate was stolen. Before it was stolen he made copies
and he wants you to certify the photocopies as true copies of the original.
What do you do?
You cannot certify a document to be a true copy of the original without seeing the
original at the time of certifying.
SHARING PROCEEDDS OF A LAWFIRM WITH A PERSON WHO IS NOT A
REGSITERED LEGAL PRACTITIONER.
10. You have just graduated from law school and want to start your own
law firm and you dont have funds. A rich uncle offers to give you the
funds on condition that you give him 20% of your monthly earning for a
period of 12 months. What do you do?
It is not lawful to share proceeds with a person who is not a registered practitioner.
TRUST ACCOUNTS
11. You have a client who comes to you and says he wants you to
represent him but he does not have money. He offers you his car as
payment.
You cannot accept payment in kind because all payment should be entered into the
trust account.
Payment must be in cash and in exact amounts. You cannot receive payment before
work is done. You receive payment after work is done. I order to obtain your
payment you have to send your client a bill. Your client is supposed to give you
permission to transfer money from the trust account to your business account. If
your client feels that you have overcharged him or her. You can send the bill to a
taxing officer who will adjust the bill and you will receive a taxed bill. It is not
possible to receive payment in kind because there are tariffs set by the law society.
The scale of tariffs is determined by the practitioners experience. Moreover money
received in the trust account should be banked within 24 hours. Legal
Practitioners Act.
12. To whom does the file belong to?
The file belongs to the client.
13. You are involved in a matter in which both parties have decided to
settle outside court. Your opposing counsel has been practicing for more
than a decade and you have been practicing for five years. How do you
determine where to hold the settlement meeting?
14. You meet an old friend of yours. He is happy to hear that you have
completed your studies and you are now lawyer. He hands you summons
and tells you he is about to leave the country. He asks you to enter an
appearance to defend in order to stall his opponents. He says he will pay
you when he returns. What do you do?
16. You go to court and your opposing counsel has not yet arrived and the
court is already in session. What do you do?
17. A client has transferred her file from law firm X to your law firm. The
previous lawyer failed to set down the matter and the client wants you to
proceed with the matter. Your client informs you that the matter was not
set down because her previous lawyer was drunk. She wants you to
include this information in an affidavit in an application for rescission for
default judgment. Can you include this information?
18. How do you address a judge?
19. How do you address a magistrate?
20. Is it ethical to fall in love with a client?
21. Is it ethical to represent my sister?

22. Can a client request for his bill to be taxed? If so where would you
send the bill to be taxed?
22. A client rushes into your office. He tells you that he is running from the
police and he does not want to be arrested. What do you do?
23. If you see a judge in the corridor fully robed in their court regalia what
do you do?
24. If the senior partner at your firm asks you to interview his client. How
would you charge him? On your scale or your senior partners scale?
25. If you are representing Mr X against Mr Y and two years later Mr Y
asks you to represent him against Mr X what do you do?

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ETHICS ORAL QUESTIONS

1.Define professional ethics.

21. Is it ethical to represent my sister?

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