Term Paper on Legal & Judicial Ethics

TERM PAPER ON LEGAL & JUDICIAL ETHICS

Submitted to: Atty. Romeo Sai!a"

Submitted by: Ta!# Jo$! Le"te% A. '()('*++, Satu%day

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INTRODUCTION The field of legal ethics is bounded, as it were, by a four-fold relation. Both the law and practice have established the lawyer's relation to the courts, to his clients, to the bar and to the public. The norms bearing on these have their positive source in the Rules of Court, judicial decisions and the Canons of rofessional !thics. The Canons of rofessional !thics for lawyers in the hilippines were adopted by the hilippine Bar "ssociation in #$#% and again in #$&( and these were derived from the Canons of the "merican Bar "ssociation of #$)*   (Malcolm, Legal and Judicial Ethics) . The Canons have been cited and applied by the +upreme Court in disciplinary cases of lawyers and constitute, to a large measure, the ethical guide to the conduct of the lawyer's professional affairs. LEGAL ETHICS# DE0INED. t is the branch of moral science which treats of the duties which an attorney owes to the court, to his client, to his colleagues in the profession and to the public (Malcolm, Legal and  Judicial Ethics [1949]) as embodied in the Constitution, Rules of Court, the Code of  rofessional Responsibility, Canons of rofessional !thics, urisprudence, oral /aw, and +pecial /aws. SIGNI0ICANCE O0 LEGAL ETHICS The practice of law which covers a wide range of activities characteristic of the legal profession, including the pursuit and defense of clients0 rights and interests before the courts, will be transgressive, anarchic, riotous, lawbrea1ing, defiant and disobedient to courts 2 if there are no sets of governing rules to limit the parameters and tame the e3ercise of the profession. /egal !thics will guard against the abuses and ills of the profession, such as dishonesty, deceit, immorality, negligence, slothness, lac1 of diligence and the many forms of malpractice of  the embers of the Bar. 4n the positive side, it will raise the standard of the legal profession, encourage and enhance the respect for the law, assure an effective and efficient administration of justice, assist in the 1eeping and maintenance of law and order in coordination with the other  5epartments of the 6overnment. t also provides the basis for the weeding out of the unfit and the misfit in the legal profession for the protection of the public.

ORIGINAL 1ASES O0 LEGAL ETHICS The original bases of /egal !thics are the following7 #. Canons of rofessional !thics 8. +upreme Court 5ecisions 9. +tatistics &. Constitution :. Treatises and ublications INTEGRATED 1AR O0 THE PHILIPPINES 2I1P3 t is the national organi;ation of lawyers created on anuary #, #$%9 under Rule #9$-", Rules of Court, and constituted on ay &, #$%9 into a body corporate by residential 5ecree