{"id":325392,"date":"2017-06-05T06:03:42","date_gmt":"2017-06-05T06:03:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=325392"},"modified":"2017-06-05T06:03:42","modified_gmt":"2017-06-05T06:03:42","slug":"lawyer-sosus-ban-severe-and-excessive-amaliba","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=325392","title":{"rendered":"Lawyer Sosu\u2019s ban severe and excessive \u2013 Amaliba"},"content":{"rendered":"

A member of the legal team of the National Democratic Congress, lawyer Abraham Amaliba, has said the legal General Legal Council\u2019s 3-year-ban imposed on renowned human rights lawyer, Francis Xavier-Sosu, is \u201cexcessive\u201d and \u201cso severe.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to him, the supposed crime does not correspond with the punishment meted out to him by the Council.<\/p>\n

[contextly_sidebar id=”fDLuVkQo3mLg2IoTqT1zht3K01Wt2tKv”]\u00a0The General Legal Council (GLC) in a letter announced\u00a0that it had slapped the ban on lawyer Sosu for \u00a0\u2018overcharging\u2019 a client<\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/strong>and\u00a0also for\u00a0<\/span><\/span>advertising his service on Facebook.<\/span><\/p>\n

But lawyer Amaliba noted that, in cases of this nature, some lawyers were made to refund the excess payment but not banned.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe punishment for that offence of overcharging and touting is so severe and it is excessive. Your punishment must correspond with your crime. And I think that there are other cases in which some lawyers were asked to refund the money that the committee had claimed that they had overcharged. And I think that much as he pleaded guilty, the punishment for me is harsh,” he said.<\/p>\n

Mr. Amaliba told\u00a0Citi News<\/strong>\u00a0 steps are being taken to\u00a0ensure that he\u00a0appeals the decision today [Monday].<\/p>\n

“On Monday, there are steps that are being taken to ensure that he files an appeal,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

According to the General Legal Council, lawyer Sosu charged his client GH\u00a250,000, which was \u201cexcessive\u201d and an \u201coverestimation\u201d for the services rendered to the client in a human right case that saw the client receive a compensation of GH\u00a2 200,000, although he [Sosu] had told the client he was offering his legal services for free.<\/p>\n

\"Francis
Francis Xavier Sosu<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It said, within the 3-year period, lawyer Francis Xavier Sosu \u201cshall not hold himself out as a Legal Practitioner or attend Chambers, or render, or purport to render any professional legal service to any person whomsoever, wheresoever.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr. Xavier-Sosu has already confirmed to Citi News<\/strong> that he will appeal the decision today [Monday].<\/p>\n

\"Franklin
Franklin Cudjoe, President of IMANI Ghana<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Meanwhile, the Founding President of IMANI Africa, Franklin Cudjoe, has also described as \u2018senseless\u2019 the\u00a0<\/strong>3-year-ban<\/strong><\/span><\/a>\u00a0imposed on renowned human rights lawyer.<\/p>\n

According to him, the Council\u2019s regulation barring lawyers from advertising their services is rather causing many lawyers to force themselves into landmark political cases to subtly advertise their services.<\/p>\n

Mr. Cudjoe in a Facebook post on Sunday called on the Council to review its decision.<\/p>\n

–<\/p>\n

By: Jonas Nyabor\/citifmonline.com\/Ghana<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A member of the legal team of the National Democratic Congress, lawyer Abraham Amaliba, has said the legal General Legal Council\u2019s 3-year-ban imposed on renowned human rights lawyer, Francis Xavier-Sosu, is \u201cexcessive\u201d and \u201cso severe.\u201d According to him, the supposed crime does not correspond with the punishment meted out to him by the Council. [contextly_sidebar […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,11],"tags":[1277,7742,3],"class_list":["post-325392","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-slider-1","category-top-stories","tag-amaliba","tag-general-legal-council","tag-ghana-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325392","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=325392"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325392\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=325392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=325392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=325392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}