26 February 2013

Lawyers Disciplinary Management Council inaugurated

ETLJB 26 February 2013 - On Monday 11 February 2013 the Ministry of Justice inaugurated the Lawyers Disciplinary Management Council at the Legal Training Centre in Caicoli, Dili.

Seven active members were inaugurated: Nelinho Vital, as President; António Gonçalves; Fernando Lopes, Manuel Tilman; Pedro Aparício de Oliveira; and two other alternate members: Francisco de Araújo Almeida and Helena Pereira.

In accordance with the Minister of Justice, Dionísio Babo, ‘Timor-Leste has marked yet another milestone in the justice sector, for no Lawyers Council had been established so far. Thus, it is the intention of the Government to establish a Lawyers Disciplinary Management Council so that lawyers may legally provide legal assistance to our people who want peace so vehemently’.

Minister Dionísio Babo also stressed that ‘this Council was established with the financial support of the Government, through the Ministry of Justice, and that, in the future, there will be a Public Defense Office also financed by the State’.

Nelinho Vital, elected President of the Council, underlined that the ‘objective of the Lawyers Disciplinary Management Council is to defend the right of lawyers and to simultaneously take on the duty and responsibility in the face of the promotion of the lawyers disciplinary management. Since this is an independent profession, lawyers professional ethics needs to elevate the level of the services provided to the community, in accordance with law and public order.

After the inauguration, one of the activities of the Council will be to organize the functioning of the lawyers service through the registration and issuance of the lawyers professional cards. Source: Government of East Timor

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