ORDINANCE No. 12 of 1858.
Practitioners in Law.
No. 12 of 1858.
An Ordinance for Practitioners in Law.
[12th July, 1858.]
BE it enacted and ordained by His Excellency the Governor of Hongkong, with the advice of the Legislative Council thereof, as follows:-
1. Legal practitioners of the Supreme Court, howsoever qualified, are hereby authorized to act as barristers and attornies, or as barristers, or as attornies according to their instructions, and as they may think fit: except in the cases hereinafter specified.
2. When the same practitioner acts as barrister and attorney in the same matter, the remuneration receivable by him shall be regulated accordingly: exempli gratiâ, he shall not be allowed to make any charge or take any fee for or upon pretence of attornies' consultations, with instructions to or attendances on counsel, or the drawing or copying of briefs to counsel, or preparing or copying of papers for the perusal of counsel, or the like.
3. No barrister shall become or be in any wise interested in the profits of the business of any other practitioner in law, directly or indirectly, and whether under the name of law partner, or under any other name, or be or act as agent for, or clerk to, any such practitioner: And no attorney having a law partner shall be allowed to act as barrister in any matter where himself or his said partner is, or shall be, retained or acting as attorney.
4. The laws for the time being in force, with reference to attornies, their fees or costs, the taxation thereof, and the right of lien and suit in respect of the same, are hereby extended to all practitioners when acting as attornies, and to all fees and costs claimed or received in respect of business done by any practitioner in the law as an attorney, and by virtue of this Ordinance, subject to section 2.
5. From the beginning to the end, or at any intermediate period or periods, of any prosecution, action, suit, or appeal or proceeding, it shall be lawful for any person belonging to any or either of the classes next hereinafter mentioned, to appear, prosecute, sue, defend, or proceed, in the said Court and the offices thereof, subject only to the provisions of sections 3 and 6, and to the general jurisdiction of the said Court in respect of the orderly transaction of the business of the same, and of the said offices, that is to say:
1st. Any of the parties on either side to the prosecution, action, suit, appeal, or proceeding, not being represented therein by some person willing and able to act in his stead:
2nd. Any barrister of the said Court duly retained by or on behalf of and representing any of the said parties, but without any right of exclusive audience or preaudience, or (save as to rank in the profession) any privilege over any other party, or over his retained practitioner or representative in that behalf:
438
[See Ord. No. 5 of 1859.]
Barristers and attornies.
Mode of remuneration.
Law partnerships.
Extension to barristers of laws relating to attornies.
What persons may appear, sue, and be heard.
1st. The parties themselves, if unrepresented.
2nd. Barristers retained,