by 
There is pressing need to call on the leadership of the NBA owing to the spate of incessant reports of cases of some desperate lawyers undercharging their clients of ridiculous fees in land documentations and other incidental matters. It cannot be gainsaid that lawyers who are still ready to maintain the dignity and standard of the profession by insisting on percentage basis are sadly at the losing end as those clients would usually rush to “kowope” lawyers who are ready to take pittance to prepare and perfect the land documentation.
While property agents are smiling to their banks as they collect their non-negotiable fee of 10% or 5% as the case may be from their clients, legal practitioners are always at the mercy of their clients with the fear of taking their briefs to those lawyers that would hurriedly accept for a penny. It is highly disturbing and heart-wrenching that a client would offer his Solicitor a paltry sum of N20,000 for a land agreement valued N10,000,000 (Ten Million Naira). However, if the Solicitor declines the wretched offer but insist on percentage basis, another learned colleague zealously awaits the same client in his office that will thankfully do it for that impoverished sum. Is this profession still noble?
It is highly worrisome that the standard of the supposed noble profession has been badly eroded and relegated to its lowest ebb in the area of professional charges by the whims and caprices of clients largely in connivance with some lawyers.
This is a wake-up call to the Nigerian Bar Association to find a lasting solution to this menace that has eaten deep into the standard and dignity of the profession. The well-being and welfare of a lawyer is of paramount importance in the discharge of his functions and duties. Of what value of calling a lawyer “D Law” wearing a tattered suit blend with heaven’s calling shoes, pitifully carrying casefiles and lawbooks, sweating profusely on a bike or trekking on the road, miles away from Court to his office? The prestige and nobility should not only be seen in his title and cliche “D Law” but be well manifested in the services rendered, appearance, poise, charisma, finances, health and his well-being which are largely determined by his earnings.
Section 15 of the Legal Practitioners Act established the Legal Practitioners Remuneration Committee which is empowered to make provision for maximum charges for transactions or activities, ascertainment of appropriate charges, taking of security by legal practitioners for payment of fees or their charges and allowance of interest with respect to the security and also agreements between legal practitioners and their clients with respect to charges.
This Committee is composed of:
- The Attorney General of the Federation
- All the States Attorneys General
- President of the Nigerian Bar Association, and
- 3 members of the NBA duly appointed by the NBA.
For some decades, it is not an overstatement that this Committee which is supposed to be a regulatory body regulating professional charges of lawyers with powers to sanction erring members, has been very redundant in its duties and responsibilities as the Committee merely appears on paper with no records of achievements.
It is high time the Committee woke up from its slumber with a view to revisiting and reviewing the Legal Practitioners (Remuneration for Land documentation and other Land matters) Order which is completely obsolete, cumbersome, confusing, incomprehensible and does not represent the present socio-economic realities of the day. The Order came into force since 1992, that is, about 3 decades. The official exchange rate of a dollar to Naira as at 1992 was N17 per dollar. Current a dollar is sold for 410 per dollar. Is it not glaring that the order is indeed a mockery of itself and the profession at large for it to be applicable in our present state of economy?
The order should be drafted in the simplest form that will be in tandem with existential economic realities in the Country. Though understandably, subsection 4 of Section 15 of the LPA provides the steps and procedure to take for a review of the Order. I am of the humble opinion that the NBA can activate this call for a holistic review of the Legal Practitioners (Land Documentation) Order to meet with the current realities. A written request should urgently be made by the NBA to the Legal Practitioners Remuneration Committee to kickstart the process. It is expedient to incorporate enforceability mechanisms and stiffer sanctions and penalties in the law that will be meted on erring members that contravene the law.
If professional bodies like surveyors and artisans such as masons can have a uniform pricing regime in their association, there is no reason why Nigerian Bar Association whose members are not only educated but learned will find it difficult or impracticable to have a pricing regime that will be implementable and enforceable.
The period of Covid-19 pandemic, EndSars protest and the recent JUSUN industrial action where all Courts and under lock and keys and lawyers still had to eke a living for themselves should be hard lesson for us all to learn. It is undignifying for us as lawyers to be waiting for palliatives from any organisation or group before we survive.
I call on the leadership of the NBA to have an introspection on this issue and fashion out ways and lasting panacea to put an end to this malady. The Olumide Akpata led administration will forever be remembered in the history of NBA if this ugly issue can be permanently addressed and impeccable legacy sustained on the review and implementation of uniform professional charges of lawyers as it relates to preparation of land documentations and other incidental matters.
The time to act is now! A stitch in time saves nine!
Signed.
Henry Akingbesote, Esq.
