•Foluso Olapo
Foluso Olapo, a legal and practitioner and relationship advisor, speaks on what makes a lawyer be termed charge and bail, why young lawyers prefer the practice and the role they play among other issues, reports Nigerian Tribune.
Excerpts:
Is charge and bail a concept in Nigerian law? What is charge and bail in simple terms?
The issue of charge and bail goes to the root of the legal profession. It goes beyond just the question of who a charge and bail lawyer is but it is the first question. We need to talk about who is regarded as a charge and bail lawyer.
Many people believe that the law profession is a noble profession. In fact, it is seen as a profession that carries itself with dignity. To that extent, everyone practicing as a lawyer must be seen to be noble and to be a person of dignity and should not be seen conducting official affairs in a way that is not noble.
Ordinarily, legal professionals that are found within the courts running after clients, soliciting services are called charge and bail.
To many people, however, charge and bail are lawyers who are not rich, who do not have cars, are too ordinary and can’t be trusted.
Are they fake lawyers?
They are not fake lawyers; they are just underrated because of people’s perception of how lawyers should look.
For instance, lawyers are not expected to trek to court but the reality is many lawyers trek to court; they don’t have chambers and some will be sweating by the time they get to court or meet potential clients in court. This makes people think that they are not lawyers.
People even believe that such lawyers may not be able to articulate their matters well because of the way they look and appear. They are not fake lawyers at all; they are actually qualified lawyers who do not have the financial strength to set up and consequently decide to stay around the courts, especially lower courts or police stations, to solicit briefs, usually to get bail for suspects or defendants as the case may be. This act of soliciting is why they are termed charge and bail lawyers.
What is meant by “ambulance chasing”?
Well, ambulance chasing is the term used for the act of soliciting and running after clients and this is why charge and bail lawyers are called ambulance chasers. They call them this because they run after clients to solicit services.
Of course, by the rules of the legal profession, lawyers are not expected to advertise. And that is why you don’t see advertisements of lawyers on radios and televisions. But I think that is changing now with the advent of social media. Many law firms make themselves known through social media. That’s a means of advertisement, of course. But of course, today, it has not changed. Lawyers do not advertise their services. So if anyone goes below that professional ethics to begin to solicit for services, it means that the person is breaching the code of professional ethics. And which many times, is what is done by these people that we call ambulance chasers
Do they play specific roles that add value to the profession?
They are lawyers who assist clients in securing release on bail after being arrested by the police or help clients apply for bail when taken to court. That’s what they do, they are around so people get immediate service which is important because the law stipulates that everyone must get legal service without stress.
They assist clients in securing release on bail after they have been arrested by the police. That means you usually see them with a client going to the police station, seeking their release, trying to protect their rights from being breached by the police officers and help them to get bail, if necessary.
And if they cannot get bail, he will make sure that they charge such to court. And although many seem to think that they are not lawyers, this isn’t the case. Majority of them are lawyers, because you ask me whether they are fake lawyers.
While some of them are fake, many of them are not because many of them actually went to school; they went to the university, the Law School and were called to the Bar.
So, meaning they are free and they are legally right to practice in Nigeria. It is only that they are focused on an aspect of the profession that is considered unethical in nature.
Let me add that beyond this, they advise clients on the next step to take, they do a whole lot of things that lawyers and big offices should do.
But because they are found around the premises of the lower courts, people just think they are not lawyers, they are not big and people wrongly believe that if you are not as big as a lawyer, you are not as intelligent as people or as lawyers who have big offices and cars. That’s not the truth.
So, this is an important part of legal practice. Lawyers are expected to represent their clients and to represent them well; whether or not they are found around court premises, it’s a different bargain.
Like I said, lawyers are not expected to advertise. And when you run around people, milling around people in court, asking for them to give you brief and employ you to do their case, that is undignified for a lawyer.
But of course, they are performing a function that is expected of them by law.
