“Abu Dhabi Cassation” Affirms a Decision to Permanently Cancel a Lawyer’s License

The Abu Dhabi Court of Cassation has upheld the decision issued by the Lawyers Disciplinary Council to permanently cancel a lawyer’s license for violating his professional duties.

This decision is issued on the basis of a complaint submitted against the lawyer in relation to a compensation case, as he has concluded an agreement provides for taking a percentage of the disputed amount instead of agreeing on a fixed remuneration, which is not permissible according to the law.

Besides, he has refrained from handing over the compensation amount ordered by the court which he received based on a power of attorney issued to him by the plaintiff, thereby breaching his professional ethics and his obligation towards his client.

According to the case facts, an agreement has been concluded between the plaintiff and the lawyer for filing a compensation case against a hospital which inflicted severe damages on the plaintiff’s wife as a result of a medical error, provided that a fee of 25% of the awarded compensation would go to the lawyer.

Based on the court judgement, the plaintiff was awarded a sum of three million dirhams which was received and en-cashed by the lawyer based on the power of attorney issued to him. Out of this amount, the lawyer deposited only a sum of 200 thousand dirhams in the plaintiff’s wife account.

However, according to article 31 of the Law Regulating the Legal Profession, which states that a lawyer may not buy any disputed rights wholly or partly nor may he agree to take part of them in return for his fees; the condition provided for in the agreement in relation to payment of attorney fee out of the decided award is deemed illegal.

In the reasoning of its judgment, the Court of Cassation stated that based on the case file, “it is established that the amount received by the defendant was not handed over to his client apart from the 200 thousand dirhams”, which forms a violation of the lawyer’s code of conduct and professional ethics stipulated in Article 47 of the Law Regulating the Legal Profession.

This violation is materialized when a lawyer performs any act that degrades the value of the profession or affects the rights of his client, through the exploiting of the POA granted to him. Based on the above, the court believes that the decision issued by the disciplinary council to convict the lawyer and permanently cancel his license is accurate and correctly complies with the law.