Reps To Amend The Legal Practitioners Act 1990
The Nigerian Bar Association may lose millions of naira in revenue following the ongoing moves by the House of Representatives to amend the Legal Practitioners Act 1990.
The amendment, when passed, will exempt lawyers of one to five years post-call from paying practising fees.
Findings show that 1,785 law graduates were called to the bar in 2020, while 880 passed the bar final examinations in July 2021.
The ‘Bill for an Act to amend the Legal Practitioners Act 1990, to exclude Legal Practitioners of 1-5 years post-call from payment of practising fee and for related matters, 2021,’ was sponsored by a member of the House of Representatives from Ughelli North/South/Udu federal constituency, Francis Waive.
Presently, the payment of the annual Bar Practising Fees by fresh and senior lawyers is a requirement for all lawyers enrolled at the Supreme Court of Nigeria.
The payment usually commences from January 1 and ends on March 31 every year by virtue of Rule 9 (1) – (3) of the Rules of Professional Conduct for legal practitioners in the country.
The payment of the BPF is a requirement for a lawyer to maintain his practice licence, retain his name on the roll of legal practitioners, and be in good standing. Extant laws make it professional misconduct not to pay within the applicable period.
According to the BPF schedule obtained from the NBA website, www.nigerianbar.org.ng, on Saturday, Senior Advocates and Honourable Benchers pay N50,000 annually; legal practitioners of 15 years and above post-call, N25,000; lawyers of 10-14 years post-call, N17,500; legal practitioners 5-9 years at the bar, N10,000, while those below pay N5,000.
This development is happening one year after a gazette by the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN), amended the Rules of Professional Conduct for Legal Practitioners 2007, removing the requirement for the NBA stamp and seal on court processes.
The move had caused a division among some Senior Advocates of Nigeria and lawyers in the country.
The amendment bill read in part, “Be it enacted by the National Assembly of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as follows:
“1. The Legal Practitioners Act (hereinafter referred to as “Principal Act”) is amended as set out in this bill.
“2. Section 3 of the Principals Act is amended by inserting a new section 5 as follows:
“(5) a Legal Practitioner of 1-5 years post-call is hereby exempted from the payment of practising fee and is entitled to practise in any court of law in Nigeria within the time range, provided his call to bar certificate shows that he is less than five years at the bar.”
In his letter at the beginning of the 2021 legal year, the NBA President, Olumide Akpata, had said lawyers who paid the BPF and Branch dues as and when due were entitled to two free packs of stamp and seal (48 stamps in all).
He listed other benefits to include automatic Life Insurance cover of up to N2m, permanent/total disability insurance cover of up to N1m; critical illness cover of up to N500,000 and a limited accidental medical expense cover.
The benefits, according to the NBA president, also include access to finance and other welfare programmes to be set up by the NBA; meeting the eligibility requirements for Notary Public application; meeting the eligibility requirements for Senior Advocate of Nigeria application; being eligible to vote and be voted for at all NBA National and Branch Elections; and eligibility for NBA Letter of Good Standing.
The proposed amendment bill also stipulates that a lawyer shall not be conferred with the rank of a Senior Advocate if he did not have as part of his employees, at least five lawyers of one to five years post-call.
This was reflected in section 5 subsection 2 of the Principal Act which was amended with the introduction of ‘sec 5 sub 2 (a) and a new subsection (b).
Section 5 subsection 2 (b) states, “A person shall not be conferred with the rank of a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, if he does not have as part of his employee on salary, not less than five legal practitioners of one to five years post-call. This Bill may be cited as the Legal Practitioners (Amendment) Bill, 2021.”
The NBA President, Olumide Akpata, could not be reached for comment on the amendment bill on Saturday as he did not respond to calls.
But Chief Ifedayo Adedipe, SAN, who said he had not seen the new bill, noted that the exemption of the new wigs might not substantially affect the NBA revenue. He said he had no objection to the amendment if it was meant to help young lawyers.
He, however, added, “What is his (bill sponsor) business with that? The legal profession is not one for politicians to begin to tell us how to do it. It is a professional body; the body of benchers would give us what they think we should have, not for politicians or the National Assembly.”
A lawyer, Dr Daniel Makolo said the NBA revenue might be impacted by the exemption given to new lawyers, noting, however, that NASS should be more concerned with the quality of legal practice, and judicial officers.
“The quality of judges, magistrates and area judges has become very low since they started engaging the children of the rich and influential on the bench and they are very lazy; they merely want the perks of the office. That’s what I think they should address,” Makolo said.
