CAUSELIST FOR HIGH COURT 1

Dear Perak Bar Members,

Kindly find attached herewith the causelist for High Court 1 from 1/09/2009-3/09/2009.

The causelist can be downloaded here.

CAUSELIST FOR HIGH COURT 1

Dear Perak Bar Members,

Kindly find attached herewith the causelist for High Court 1 from 24/08/2009-28/08/2009.

The causelist can be downloaded here.

CAUSELIST FOR HIGH COURT 1

Dear Perak Bar Members,

Kindly find attached herewith the causelist for High Court 1 from 18/08/2009-21/08/2009.

The causelist can be downloaded here.

ETHICS COURSE BRIEFING

Dear Members of the Perak Bar and Chambering Students,

I write to confirm that members of the Bar - Mr. Colin Andrew Pereira and Mr Sanjeev Kumar Rasiah will conduct the Bar Council's Ethics Course briefing at Perak Bar as follows:-

Date : 14 August 2009 (Friday)

Time : 3.00pm

Venue : Perak Bar Committee premises at No. 41, Jln

DatoMaharajalela, Ipoh, Perak

Kindly RSVP to the Perak Bar Secretariat by 13th of August 2008.Please inform your chambering students to attend the same as it is a compulsory attendance for those who has not attended the ethics course yet.

Thank you.

Yours sincerely,

Surindar Singh

Chairman

Chambering Students Sub-Committee

IN THE DRIVING SEAT

It been a while since I have written a report to the members of the Perak Bar. For this I must apologise for not doing so, as it has been a hectic few months.

Getting into it, as most of you would know we have been facing problems with both the High Court and the Lower Courts with regards to administration of files and the day to day management of the same.

So far I am happy to report that after lots of hard work by the members of the Courts Sub-committee who have been liaising with the Hakim Kanan Mahkamah Sesyen and her team, most of the problems that were being faced by the members of the Bar, as well as the members of the public, has been sorted out. This includes the problems that many members were facing with the enforcement files. There will be a new system in place and information as to that system will be sent out via this Blog soon. I wish to place on record our sincere thanks to Puan Rasidah Binti Chik and her team for their tireless efforts resolving the problems there were present and the patience in hearing our views.

We are still trying to assist in resolving the problems with the High Court however our efforts have been met with resistance. The Main committee has decided to step up our efforts to ensure that our views are heard and this is being done at the moment. As such if you do have any problems with the management of files as well as the any other problems pertaining to the High Court Registry please do drop us a note so that we can assist you in having it resolved.

I am also happy to report that we have the use of the High Court Bar Room. Most of you would have heard that due to a shortage of space, the said Bar room was nearly taken back by the High Court Management. However, through the steps and the efforts taken by the Courts Sub-Committee , we have managed to retain the said bar room for the use of the Members of the Bar. We have also taken steps to improve the ventilation to make it more comfortable.

I must thank the members of the Courts Sub Committee for all their hard work and effort.

On the social side, the Social Sub-committee and its Chair Mr. Stephen Su has put great effort in organizing events for the benefit of the members of the Perak Bar. As you know from the circular that has been sent to each member, the said efforts have not been appreciated as the support for the events organized has been abysmal to say the least. I Hope that the members of the Perak Bar will support all the forthcoming events that are going to be organized by Mr. Stephen and his Sub- Committee including the Annual Dinner. PLEASE SUPPORT OUR SOCIAL EVENTS.

On the sports front, the Penang Perak Bar Games has just been completed. The report on the same has been posted on the Blog. I wish to thank the Sport Sub-Committee for all the effort put in. Once again I wish to remind members that the success of any event organized depends solely on you as members of the Perak Bar, as only your support can prove the success of that event.

We have also organized talks on issues of Law over the last few months, most of them have been very well received. We hope to organize more. If you have any particular subjects you wish to have talks or discussions to be organized on, please get in touch with Mr. Rashpal and I am sure that he will be glad to assist.

Legal Aid is doing well. As most of you know our legal aid center is now located in our Perak Bar secretariat. We will be commencing renovations to better facilitate the Legal aid center and afford our secretariat staff more privacy. Legal Aid can always do with more assistance. So please help by volunteering your time and effort to the center, so that we can meet the demands of providing legal aid to needy members of the Public.

As you have notice the Blog is doing well. Please do contribute more articles to Mr.Gavin Tang for the Blog. Also for your information I am informed that the lower court cause list will soon be available on the Blog in the coming few months.

As you can see it has been a very eventful few months, and I thank all of you who have contributed to the Perak Bar in some manner or rather. Please continue to do so.

Thank you.

Shan Theivanthiran

Chairman of the Perak Bar

CHANGE OF NAME AND ADDRESS

To All Members of the Perak Bar,

We are pleased to inform you that with effect from 15^th August, 2009, we will be changing our firm’s name from

Messrs Chang Ko Youn, Liew & Co to Messrs Liew & Associates.

All partners and lawyers remain unchanged.

Further, with effect from the same date, we will be moving into our new premise and our new address is as follows:

LIEW & ASSOCIATES

Advocates and Solicitors

No 15, Jalan Lau Ek Ching,

30300 Ipoh, Perak

Tel: 05-2539863,05-2550587

Fax: 05-2530971

Email: ohtan@streamyx.com

Please direct all future correspondence and cause papers to the new address after the 15^th August,2009

Thank you

Ms Liew Meng Wai

UPDATE ON THE PROPOSED NEW RULES OF COURT

To All Members of the Malaysian Bar

UPDATE ON THE PROPOSED NEW RULES OF COURT

1. The Task Force on Combined Rules of Court (Task Force) was appointed by the Bar Council in 2007 to liaise with the Judiciary on a proposal for a single set of civil procedure rules for the High Court and Subordinate Courts.

2. The Task Force has been working tirelessly with the Judiciary to ensure that the proposed rules achieve the desired balance between justice and fairness to the litigant and efficient and speedy determination of cases by the Court. Its final comments on the Judges' proposed amendments were submitted to the Judiciary on 13.3.2009. Following that, the Task Force has been invited to sit with the Judges Committee to finalise the amendments within a timeline of 2-3 months. The Attorney General's Chambers is also represented on this Committee. The 1st meeting was held on 10.7.2009.

3. The purpose of the said Rules is to improve the administrative and delivery process of the legal system.

4. The amendments proposed by the Judges Committee will have far-reaching implications on the way litigation is practised.

5. Some of the crucial changes proposed are highlighted hereinbelow:

• Extensions of time cannot be mutually agreed upon by the parties and will only be granted by Court

• The Court can decide whether an application should be disposed without a hearing

• The Court can decide whether a matter should be disposed by Affidavit evidence only

• Applications to set aside an Order must be made within 7 days of service

• The overriding objective of the Rules is to enable the Court to deal with cases justly and expeditiously

• The criteria for dealing with cases justly include:

- ensuring that the parties are on an equal footing;
- saving expense;
- dealing with the case in ways which are proportionate-

i) to the amount of money involved;
ii) to the importance of the case;
iii) to the complexity of the issues; and
iv) to the financial position of each party.

- ensuring that it is dealt with expeditiously and fairly; and

- allotting to it an appropriate share of the court's resources, while taking into account the need to allot resources to other cases.

• There will only be one (1) mode of originating process known as a Claim; and 1 application for all interlocutories

• There will be a new summary procedure which incorporates the current Order 14, Order 14A, Order 18 rule 19, Order 18 rule 11 and Order 33 rule 2 of the Rules of the High Court 1980

• The test in summary proceedings will be “the justice of the case' and not ‘triable issues”

• Some limited equitable jurisdiction (specific performance / rescission, etc) will be extended to the lower Courts

• All matters that are commenced will have a return date ie. similar to the current subordinate court practice of mention dates

• Statement of truth: The Rules require certain documents to be verified by a statement of truth by the party, his litigation friend or the legal representative of the party / litigation friend

6. The Bar Council is organising a Roadshow on the proposed Rules. The Roadshow will kick off with a forum at the Bar Council Auditorium on Tuesday, 11.8.2009 at 4.00 pm. [See Circular No. 225/2009 dated 3.8.2009]

In view of the imminent changes, members are urged to make every attempt to attend and participate in the discussion on 11.8.2009.

7. The Council is also engaging other stakeholders, namely the AG's Chambers and the Sabah & Sarawak Bars on some of the main objections to the proposed rules. This matter was discussed at the 2 nd Tripartite meeting with the Sabah & Sarawak Bars on 9.8.2009.

8. The Bar Council is working closely with the Judges Committee and hopes that collectively we can achieve a more effective and efficient judicial delivery system.

9. Please forward any comments or enquiries you may have on this matter to Vinodhini Samuel at the Secretariat at vino.bs@malaysianbar.org.my . For enquiries / information, please contact Vino at 03-2032 4184 / 03-2031 3003 ext 149.

Thanking you.

George Varughese
Secretary

THOUGHTS ON THE PROFESSIONAL STANDARDS AND ETHICS COURSE

If you can remember I gave my 2 cents worth on the Ethics requirements about a few months back; this is my update. So, here goes:

I attended the Professional Standards & Ethics Course in Penang from 22/05/09-23/05/09 at the Bayview Georgetown Hotel. The course spanned two days; the lectures themselves were held on the first day while the dreaded ethics examination was held on the second and final day. There were six lectures in total and they were presented by the Penang Bar lawyers.

Lectures :

The lectures themselves were just a brief overview of the respective topics as there was certainly not enough time to go in great detail. Looking around the room, I saw some genuinely interested faces while others were aching for that morning coffee to provide that much needed energy boost. If you are by any chance wondering in which particular category I fall, you shall be disappointed as I am keeping mum. Maybe that might provide an answer? The lectures covered all the topics in the Ethics materials; the lectures were definitely meant as a refresher for those who had studiously read the materials, while providing a succinct overview of the individual topics for those who had maybe left the reading until the very night before. From my observation, some chambees had already neatly tabbed the relevant pages of their materials along with highlighted sections, while others possessed materials that looked brand new without a single marking on them. It really depends on what sort of individual you are because there is no single study tactic for all. No one size fits all in that sense. There were some topics that I felt could have been covered with slightly more depth notwithstanding the time constraints. Also, a helpful suggestion would be to potentially utilise audio-visual aids to present the topics as this would certainly capture our attention and be a more effective way of teaching. However, of course it is understandable that lawyers may not have the luxury of time to indulge us chambees in this way. After all, we are meant to have done the necessary reading before the course itself. Either way I am sure that we were all grateful that these senior lawyers took their time off on a Friday to present lectures to us.

Chambees:

I was seated beside two friendly Penang chambees and was soon introduced to the rest of their cohort. From my brief observation, the Penang Bar is much akin to the Perak Bar in the sense that they are a closely knitted community and at the same time very welcoming to members of the profession outside their immediate area. I felt extremely at ease and was soon happily chatting with them about my chambering experience and the Perak Bar. Rest assured that it was all good things in respect of the latter. Due to the fact that I did not attend a pre-ethics session, which was meant to brief chambees about the requirements and structure of the ethics examination, I asked the Penang chambees about what was said. They were certainly kind enough to share the necessary information with me.

Examination:

I wish this day had never come. Certainly no one enjoys sitting for exams? We were provided a new set of materials to ensure that everything was standardized. If we were to use our own set there would definitely be ‘extra’ information scribbled along the way. We had a total of 3 ½ hours to complete a list of questions. We were frantically writing and referencing the Ethics materials for fear that we would not have enough time. All I can say is that by the time I finished, my fingers were in a permanent state of shock and numbness. Never had I written so fast and so much for a long time. The examination was simple enough in the sense that all the necessary answers were already contained in the materials themselves. All that we needed to do was to extract the relevant information and apply them to the questions. It was straightforward enough and there were no red herrings in the questions. The difficult part was allocating just enough time for each question and moving on as quickly as possible due to time constraints. My practical advice to all those who are about to take the ethics examination is this: READ & KNOW your materials. Can you pass the examination if you read the materials just the night before? Possibly. However, can you take that risk?

Conclusion:

The Ethics Course and Examination is in no way a comprehensive guide on how to be ethical. This will be something that will be left to a lawyer’s good conscience and thorough understanding of the governing laws and rules on ethics e.g. Legal Profession Act 1976, Legal Profession (Practice and Etiquette) Rules 1978, Legal Profession (Publicity) Rules 2001, Bar Council Rulings etc. One thing that I have learnt from the Ethics course is this: the importance of preserving the integrity of the Malaysian Bar by adhering to certain professional standards and yardsticks. Ethics is not just another term for being a ‘saint’ or ‘goody two-shoes’ but about respecting fellows lawyers, the Bar itself and the sanctity of law. Jokes abound about disingenuous, unscrupulous and dishonourable lawyers and often time we laugh together when such jokes are told. However, do these jokes have a substance of truth in them? Is that why the humour is so effective? Jokes aside, lawyers should zealously guard this noble profession by upholding the highest professional conduct and principles; this is something I truly believe and I hope others do too.

Submitted by Julia Tang