PANAMA BAR ASSOCIATION-FILING COMPLAINTS

Re: [Panama_laws_for_expats] Re: Panama Bar Association list of attorneys

http://www.cnapanama.com/leyes.htm has the provisions for disciplinary procedures.

This bar association can investigate and recommend discipline to
the Supreme Court with respect to an attorney who is NOT a member. The Supreme Court can also receive complaints about lawyers who
are not members, and then forwards it to the Bar Association.

The affected party can file a complaint seeking discipline of a
lawyer with the Panama Supreme Court (a client, a district attorney or official dealing with the attorney). Remember the bar association does not file complaints - it receives and investigates them, then forwards its recommendation for disbarment to the Supreme Court.

If the bar association refuses to investigate or does not do
it to the satisfaction of the allegedly wronged client, and does NOT
refer the matter to the Supreme Court for discipline, it is the same as if a district attorney refused to prosecute a crime: end of story.

Depending on what the attorney did, other agencies may receive complaints. If we are talking a forgery, misappropiation or another felony, obviously the criminal justice system. If the attorney violated his retainer agreement (which clients rarely demand and attorneys rarely offer), a civil case can be started. If an attorney doubles as an unlicensed real estate agent, the Real Estate Board. If an attorney acts as unlicensed trustee, the Superintendent of Banks. And so on... Purely ethical issues (conflict of interest, advertising in bad taste) are the ones prosecuted solely through the association.

In practice, lawyers who belong to this bar association can be disciplined because the association has record of their offices and can be served a summons to attend the investigation. Non-members do not have their office address in record with the association and are able to delay the investigation for years by avoiding service. Also, members are reminded on a regular basis about the Code of Ethics and forwarded copies of the Code, unlike non-members who do not even read the thing during law school years.

by : Alvaro from legal forums