Expensive justice

Mon, 03 Apr 2017 11:00:36 +0000

THE astronomical scale at which lawyers’ legal fees have been increased by the beleaguered Law Association of Zambia (LAZ), in some cases by 500 percent, is the worst case of ‘’injustice for sale’’ ever heard of in the Zambian justice system.

How possible that a State Counsel’s legal fees have risen from K750 per hour to an incredible K6,000 per hour! The fees for the green horn lawyer who has served less than five years will now jump from K300 per hour to K1,400.

Just who sat down to work out these figures and had the audacity to submit them to the Chief Justice for enactment as a Statutory Instrument?

No doubt Zambians will today wake up to a rude shock to discover that the new Legal Practitioners (Costs) Order or legal fees have effectively rendered them legal destitutes in their own country. Only the super rich will henceforth access justice by paying through the nose.

While it is true that an ideal legal system is where lawyers are well paid and every citizen can afford a lawyer to represent him or her, the new fees have literally rendered the entire lawyer-client relationship a kind of ‘‘kaloba’’ business.

We agree with the Government which is alarmed by the Statutory Instrument no. 6 issued by the Chief Justice as head of the Judiciary on behalf of the Law Association of Zambia. Justice Minister Given Lubinda described the new fees as ‘‘an injury and barrier’’ to justice.

As we understand it the last time the Law Association of Zambia adjusted fees was in 2001 and we can understand they needed to be increased but certainly not at the rate and scale they have gone up.

Why could not LAZ adjust these fees gradually, say every two years? Was it a case of reckless disregard for the reality of the Zambian situation or was someone driven by greed and selfishness?

Our hearts bleed for all Zambians, especially the poor, and those in remand or on bail waiting for justice to prevail in their unfortunate circumstances. This new SI entails that their lawyer may not appear in the Magistrates Court or High Court today because they will have to sign a new agreement compelling them to pay the new fees – which they cannot afford.

The LAZ Remuneration Committee must be living in a fool’s Paradise to imagine that increasing fees by 500 percent was justice. If they had cared to consult they would have known that the fees are not only untenable but an onslaught on the justice system and the rule of law.

With that kind of fees how many Zambians can afford a lawyer when the wheels of justice grind so slowly in Zambia that some cases take two years to conclude? From now on legal representation will be a prerequisite for the ‘‘apamwamba’’. Even they will groan all the way to the bank.

Now one has to think twice before consulting a lawyer even for basic services such as a legal opinion, drawing documents as well as preparing and serving writs of summons. How much would a senior lawyer demand to appear in court in a protracted election petition at more than K4, 934 an hour?

How about hiring a Lusaka lawyer to represent someone in one of the provincial towns? Imagine transport to and fro, food, accommodation, legal fees out of station. This is what we mean when we say the new legal fees have put paid to Zambia’s growing democracy, individual liberties and the rule of law in general.

Expensive justice, like a bad law, is an injustice of the worst kind.  It must be scrapped.