Provoking Violence Against Lawyers

Cameroon laws provide that clients who find their lawyers defaulting can report the lawyers to the Cameroon Bar Council that will have one month only to decide on received complaints. The law organising practice at the Cameroon Bar states clearly that litigants can raise a "mere petition" with the Bar Council. However, the reality is that the Bar Council charges a huge fee in the name of consultation before admitting any complaints against lawyers and thus denying justice to persons who feel cheated by their lawyers.

The right to effective remedy is a human rights and the Cameroon Constitution maintains that all are equal before the law. Its therefore paradoxical that the Bar Council charges fees as a precondition to admitting complaints. That is like to say lawyers clients who cannot raise the requested consultation are not human enough to claim rights and that those rights have been abused.

I find this a particularly disturbing situation because I think its a way of pushing some aggrieved clients to contemplate unothordox and violent ways of settling scores with lawyers. I think it is high time the Cameroon Bar Council reconsiders its position here and give reason and logic its rightful place. I have put up a pool at http://www.camcomuk.co.uk/pool2.html and invite you to contribute your opinion here. I plan to forward the pool results to the president of the Cameroon Bar Association and Council with a petition for a reconsideration of the charged consultation fees. your opinion are also very welcomed

Samba Churchill, Global Conscience Initiative