The nature of lawyer's liability for professional negligence

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This dissertation examines lawyer's liability for professional negligence.Professional negligence is literally defined as negligence committed by an expert. For the purpose of this dissertation, professional negligence is defined as negligent conduct at the instance of a lawyer. It is however evident in the Namibian Jurisprudence that, lawyers are liable for negligent conduct and failing to foresee the possibility of harm to their clients and to the integrity of this prestigious profession

Lawyer's liabilities for professional negligence encompass the concept of lawyer's vicarious liability for negligent conduct of his staff in their administrative work. It's a common cause that a lawyer shall be accountable for negligent conduct of persons he employees, provided such person were acting within the sphere of their employment. It was evident that, the Law Society of Namibia has the primary role to maintain the integrity of the profession, as well as to punish lawyer by withholding their Fidelity Certificate from practicing law. In cases of complaints referred to it (Law Society of Namibia), it shall apply to the High Court for the removal of such lawyer from the Roll on evidence presented to it. If what is alleged is indeed professional negligence, the court shall remove such lawyer from the Roll of Legal Practitioners

Thus a disgruntled client has a right to pursue a remedy as consequence of professional negligence at the instance of a lawyer. These remedies include disciplinary hearing to be conducted by the Disciplinary Committee of the Law Society. One is permitted to resort to possible legislation to effectively deal with this problem. It is however evident that these cases take time to be finalized; one reason is because the Disciplinary Committee of the Law Society is under the control of the Ministry of Justice. A body of this nature should be independent, only subject to rightsand dutiesconferred to it by the Legal Practitioners Act 15 of 1995. Thus, to change the situation, it is fundamental to introduce the Legal Practitioner's Amendment Act of 2002, which states that a lawyer shall be precluded from practicing law or temporally suspended, until the finalization of his/her case