LEGAL ETHICS

• Sources of Ethical Standards


  • Constitution
  • Code of Professional Responsibility
  • Rules of Court
  • New Code of Judicial Conduct for the Philippine Judiciary
  • MCLE
  • SC Decisions, Resolutions, Circulars
  • IBP Issuances
• Other Legal Sources


  • Civil Code provisions
  • Revised Penal Code provisions
  • Special Laws
• Practice of law


  • Definition of the practice of law
  • Practice of law is a privilege, not a right
  • Law as a profession, not a business or trade
  • Essential Criteria
• Qualification for Admission to the Bar


  Bar Matter No. 1153, amending Section 5 and 6 of Rule 138
• Continuing requirements for membership in the Bar


  • Good moral character
  • Citizenship Reacquisition of the privilege to practice law in the Philippines under R.A. 9225 or the Citizenship Retention and Reacquisition Act of 2003
  • Good and regular standing (Rule 138)
  • Membership in the IBP
  • Payment of professional tax
  • Compliance with MCLE
• Appearance of Non-Lawyers


  • Law student practice rule (Rule 138-A)
  • Non-lawyers in courts
  • Non-lawyers in administrative tribunals
  • Proceedings where lawyer are prohibited from appearing as counsels
• Sanctions for practice or appearance without authority


  • Lawyers without authority
  • Persons who are not lawyers
• Public officials and the practice of law


  • Prohibition or disqualification of former government attorneys
  • Public official who cannot practice law or can practice law with restrictions
• Lawyer's Oath
• Practice of law


  It is not limited to the conduct of cases or litigation in court; it embraces the preparation of pleadings and other papers incident to actions and special proceedings, the management of such actions and proceedings on behalf of clients before judges and courts, and in addition, conveying
• Requiring members of a privileged class, such as lawyers are, to pay a reasonable fee toward defraying the expenses of regulation of the profession to which they belong is indeed imposed as a regulatory measure, designed to raise funds for carrying out the objectives and purposes of integration
• Homicide may or may not involve moral turpitude depending on the degree of the crime
• Moral turpitude is not involved in every criminal act and is not shown by every known and intentional violation of statute, but whether any particular conviction involves moral turpitude may be a question of fact and frequently depends on all the surrounding circumstances
• Atty. Dizon's actions clearly evince the moral turpitude and his unworthiness to practice law
• Passing the Bar examination is not the only qualification to become an attorney-at-law; taking the prescribed courses of legal study in the regular manner is equally essential
• admission having been obtained under false pretenses must be, and is hereby revoked
• The Solicitor General investigated and later recommended Diao's name to be erased from the roll of attorneys
• Diao asserted he had obtained his A.A. title from the Arellano University in April 1949, he says he was erroneously certified, due to confusion, as a graduate of Quisumbing College, in his school records
• Diao was not qualified to take the bar examinations; but due to his false representations, he was allowed to take it and passed it, and was thereafter admitted to the Bar
• Such admission having been obtained under false pretenses must be, and is hereby revoked
• The fact that he hurdled the Bar examinations is immaterial. Passing such examination is not the only qualification to become an attorney-at-law; taking the prescribed courses of legal study in the regular manner is equally essential
• Section 24, Rule 138, Rules of Court imports the existence of attorney-client relationship as a condition for the recovery of attorney's fee
• Such relationship cannot exist unless the representative is a lawyer
• Practice is more than an isolated appearance, for it consists in frequent or customary action, a succession of acts of the same kind
• An alumnus of a particular law school has no monopoly of knowledge of the law
• By hurdling the Bar Examinations which this Court administers, taking of the Lawyer's oath, and signing of the Roll of Attorneys, a lawyer is presumed to be competent to discharge his functions and duties as, inter alia, an officer of the court, irrespective of where he obtained his law degree
• Contempt of court presupposes a contumacious attitude, a flouting or arrogant belligerence, a defiance of the court
• While the act of Assistant Provincial Prosecutor Turalba of "walking out" does not meet our approval — as he should have stayed after the respondent Judge had denied his motion for permission to leave the courtroom — yet, the respondent Judge, in ordering the incarceration of Assistant Provincial Prosecutor Turalba, acted beyond the permissible limits of his power to punish for contempt
• Assistant Provincial Prosecutor Turalba manifested that he was not participating in the proceedings and begged to be allowed to leave the courtroom, which the respondent Judge refused
• The respondent Judge imposed upon the Assistant Provincial Prosecutor the penalty of ten (10) days imprisonment
• Contempt of court


  Presupposes a contumacious attitude, a flouting or arrogant belligerence, a defiance of the court
• A perusal of the transcript of the hearing held on 14 September 1989 shows that Assistant Provincial Prosecutor John Turalba had not made any statement that could be considered as "contumacious" or an affront to the dignity of the court
• A restraining order was issued on August 31, 1989 ordering Judge Maceda to cease and desist from continuing the hearing of Atty. Javellana's petition for bail until the motion for discharge of Oscar Tianzon as state witness is resolved
• When respondent Judge, therefore, denied the prosecution's motion for deferment of the scheduled hearings on private respondent's petition for bail and in proceeding to hear the said motion, by ordering the prosecution to present its evidence — which precipitated the walk-out of the Assistant Provincial Prosecutor and his consequent arrest and commitment to the Provincial Jail — he (respondent judge) was acting in violation of the restraining order issued by this Court
• Had the respondent Judge granted the prosecution's motion for deferment, this incident could have been avoided
• Ignorantia facti excusat; ignorantia legis neminem excusat


  Ignorance of fact excuses; ignorance of the law excuses no one
• Medado may have at first operated under an honest mistake of fact when he thought that what he had signed at the PICC entrance before the oath-taking was already the Roll of Attorneys
• However, the moment he realized that what he had signed was merely an attendance record, he could no longer claim an honest mistake of fact as a valid justification
• At that point, Medado should have known that he was not a full-fledged member of the Philippine Bar because of his failure to sign in the Roll of Attorneys, as it was the act of signing therein that would have made him so
• The "private practice" of the law profession that is prohibited by law


  Does not pertain to an isolated court appearance, it contemplates succession of acts of the same nature habitually or customarily holding one's self to the public as a lawyer