A Ghanaian citizen, Emmanuel Korsi Senyo, has gone to the Supreme Court seeking to discredit the work of the Disciplinary Committee of the General Legal Council (GLC).<\/p>\n
This comes on the back of a three-year<\/strong><\/a><\/span> ban the council handed human rights lawyer, Francis Xavier-Sosu, for overcharging a client and also advertising his services on social media.<\/p>\n [contextly_sidebar id=”4tdaypwt2PLBywAoKOsxRolkXfqEQ2E1″]Korsi Senyo in his writ is seeking a declaration that the General Legal Council\u2019s failure to prescribe the rules for its Disciplinary Committee as required by the Legal Profession Act, 1960 breaches the 1992 Constitution.<\/p>\n \u201cA declaration that the failure by the Defendant [General Legal Council] to prescribe the rules of procedure for its Disciplinary Committee in a Legislative Instrument as required by Section 19(1) of the Legal Profession Act, 1960 (Act 32) is in breach of Articles 23 and 296(c) of the 1992 Constitution as relates to the right to a fair hearing of matters before the Defendant\u2019s Disciplinary Committee as affects parties appearing before same and the requirement by the Constitution that a person or authority vested with discretionary power shall publish regulations to govern the exercise of the discretionary power,\u201d Senyo stated in his writ.<\/p>\n He also wants the Supreme Court to declare that the criminal offences contained \u201cin Sections 19(5) and (7) of the Legal Profession Act, 1960 (Act 32) are in breach of Article 19(11) of the 1992 Constitution because the said offences are not defined.\u201d<\/p>\n The GLC earlier in June banned<\/strong><\/a><\/span> Francis Xavier-Sosu, a renowned Human Rights lawyer, from practicing as a lawyer for three years, for overcharging a client, one Francis Agyare, when he represented him in a Human Right case in Accra.<\/p>\n It said that, within the 3-year period, Lawyer 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 According to the General Legal Council, Lawyer Xavier-Sosu charged his client GH\u00a250,000, which was \u201cexcessive\u201d and an \u201coverestimation\u201d for the services rendered, although he [Sosu] had told the client he was offering his legal services for free.<\/p>\n The embattled lawyer who had earlier appealed<\/strong><\/a><\/span> the council\u2019s decision subsequently applied for a stay of execution<\/strong><\/a><\/span> of his 3-year ban.<\/p>\n Below are the rest of the reliefs sought by Emmanuel Korsi Senyo:<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n –<\/p>\n By: Godwin Akweiteh Allotey\/citifmonline.com\/Ghana\n
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