PUBLIC OFFICIALS WHO CANNOT PRACTICE LAW or with
restrictions. ABSOLUTE PROHIBITIONS
1. Judges and other officials as SC employees
2. OSG officials and employees
3. Govt. Prosecutors
4. President, VP, Cabinet members
5. Constitutional Commissions Chairmen and members
6. Ombudsman and his deputies
7. All governors, city and municipal mayors
8. Those who by special law are prohibited from engaging
in the practice of their legal profession
Four fold duties of a lawyer:
1. Duties to the Society
2. Duties to the Legal Profession
3. Duties to the Courts
4. Duties to the Clients
AMICUS CURAE A friend of the court; a by-stander usually a
counselor who interposes who volunteers information upon some
matter of law in regard to which the judge is doubtful or mistaken.
Experienced and impartial attorneys invited by the court
to help in the disposition of issues submitted to it.
ATTORNEY offices of the court empowered to appear,
prosecute and defend, and upon whom peculiar duties,
responsibilities and liabilities are developed by law as a
consequence.
BAR Refers to the whole body of attorneys and counselors,
collectively, the members of the legal profession.
BARRISTER A person entitled to practice law as an advocate or
counsel in the superior court.
BENCH denotes the whole body of judges
BARRATRY or MAINTENANCE Inciting or stirring up quarrels,
litigation or groundless lawsuits.
Volunteering advice to bring lawsuit, except in cases
where ties of blood, relationship or trust make it his duty
to do so.
AMBULANCE CHASING Accident site solicitation of almost any
kind of legal business by laymen employed by an attorney for the
purpose or by the attorney himself.
COUNSEL DE OFFICIO - A counsel appointed or assigned by
the Court, from among such members of the bar in good standing
who by reason of their experience and ability, may adequately
represent the accused.
RETAINING LIEN a right merely to retain the funds, documents
and papers of his client which have lawfully come into his
possession and may retain the same until his lawful fees and
disbursements have been paid.
REQUISITES OF RETAINING LIEN:
1. Attorney-client relationship
2. Lawful possession by the lawyer of the clients funds,
documents and papers
3. Unsatisfied claims for attorneys fees or disbursements
CHARGING LIEN An equitable right to have the fees and lawful
disbursement due a lawyer for his services, secured to him out of a
money judgment.
CHAMPERTOUS CONTRACT One where the lawyer
stipulates with is client the prosecution of the case that he will bear
all the expenses for the recovery of things or property being
claimed, and the latter pays only after successful litigation. (Void as
against public policy)
CONTINGENT CONTRACT It is an agreement in which the
lawyers fee, usually a fixed percentage of what may be recovered
in the action, is made to defend upon the success in the effort to
enforce and defend the clients right. (Valid agreement)
BAR MATTER NO. 850 MCLE: To ensure lawyers throughout
their career keep abreast with law and jurisprudence, maintain the
ethics of the profession and enhance the standards of the practice
of law. Every 3 years at least 36 hours
EXEMPTIONS:
1. President, VP, Cabinet members
2. Members of Congress
3. CJ and incumbent and retired members of the judiciary
4. Chief State counsel, prosecutor and assistant secretaries
of the DOJ
5. SolGen and assistants
6. Govt. Corporate Counsel, his deputies and assistants
7. Chairmen and members of the ConCom
8. Ombudsman
9. Heads of Government agencies exercising quasi-judicial
functions
10. Incumbent deans, bar reviewers and professors of law
who have 10 year teaching experience
11. Officers and lecturers of the Phil. Judicial Academy
12. Governors, Mayors
13. Those not in law practice
14. Those who have retired from the law practice
15. A member may file a verified request setting up good
cause for exemption (disabilities)
BAR MATTER 1922 - MCLE Certificate of Compliance or
Certificate of Exemption i9n all pleadings.
SUBORNATION OF PERJURY - committed by a person who
knowingly and willfully procures another to swear falsely and the
witness does suborned does testify under circumstances rendering
him guilty of perjury. (US v. Ballena)
RADIO REQUEST TV COVERAGE Trial should not be
televised. The right of accused, who is in danger of losing his life
and liberty, to a fair trial, outweighs right of public to information.
Media exposure may unduly interfere with the disposition of the
trial.
PRIVILEGED COMMUNICATION: An attorney cannot, without
the consent of the client, be examined as to any communication
made by the client to him in the course of professional
employment; nor can an attorneys secretary or clerk be examined
without the consent of the client and his employer.
REQUISITES OF PRIVILEGED COMMUNICATION:
1. There is an attorney-client relationship or a kind of
consultancy requirement
2. The communication was made by the client to the lawyer
in the course of the lawyers professional employment
3. The communication must be intended to be confidential
APPEARANCE OF NON-LAWYERS:
Student Practice:
Completed 3rd year of the regular 4 year prescribed law
curriculum
Enrolled in a recognized law schools clinical legal
education
Under the direct supervision of a member of the IBP duly
accredited by the school
All pleadings must be signed by the supervising attorney
INTEGRATION does not make a lawyer a member of any group
of which he is not already a member. He became a member of the
Par when he passes the Phil. Bar. All that integration actually does
is to provide an official national organization for the well-defined but
unorganized and incohesive group of which every lawyer is already
a member.
OBJECTIVES OF THE IBP:
1. to elevate the standards of the legal profession
2. to improve the administration of justice
3. to enable the bar to discharge its public responsibility
more effectively
UNAUTHORIZED PRACTICE OF LAW:
1. Appearing as counsel even before taking the lawyers
oath
2. Using the title atty. in his name even though he is a
Sharia lawyer
CONTINGENCY FEE ARRANGEMENTS:
QUANTUM MERULT means as much as a lawyer deserves.
Its essential requisite is acceptance of the benefits by one sought
to be charged for services rendered under circumstances as
reasonably to notify that lawyers expect compensation.
QUANTUM MERULT AUTHORIZED IN THE FOLLOWING
INSTANCES:
1. There is no express contract for attorneys fees agreed
upon between the lawyer and the client
2. When there is formal contract, the stipulated fees are
found unconscionable or unreasonable
3. When the contract of attorneys fees is void due to purely
formal matters or defects of execution
4. When the counsel was not able to finish the case to its
conclusion
5. When lawyer and client disregard the contract of
attorneys fees
6. When there is a contract but no stipulation as to
attorneys fees
GUIDES IN DETERMININING ATTORNEYS FEES IN
QUANTUM MERULT:
1. Time spent and extent of services rendered
2. Importance of subject matter
3. Novelty and difficulty of questions Involved
4. Skill demanded of the lawyer
NOTARIAL PRACTICE:
NOTARY PUBLIC A public officer authorized by law to certify
documents, take affidavits, and administers oaths. Under the 2004
Rules on Notarial Practice, all notaries must be lawyers.
QUALIFICATIONS OF A NOTARY PUBLIC:
1. Citizen of the Philippines
2. Over 21 years of age
3. Philippine resident for at least 1 year and maintains a
regular place of work
4. Member of the Philippine bar
5. No conviction in the first instance
COMPETENT EVIDENCE OF IDENTITY refers to the
identification of the individual based on:
1. Current identification issued by a government agency
with picture and signature
2. Oath of affirmation of: 1) one credible witness not privy to
the instrument, 2) 2 credible witness neither of whom is
privy to the instrument who each personally know the
individual and shows documentary identification
RULES ON JUDICIAL ETHICS:
JUDGE a public officer, who by virtue of his office is clothed with
judicial authority, a public officer lawfully appointed to decide
litigated questions in accordance with law.
DE JURE JUDGE - one who is exercising the office of a judge as
a matter of right, an officer of the court who has been duly and
legally appointed, qualified and whose term has not expired.
DE FACTO JUDGE an officer who is not fully invested with all
the powers and duties conceded to judges, but is exercising the
office of a judge under some color or right.
BANGALORE DRAFT: (IIIPEC) QUALITIES OF A JUDGE
1. Independence
2. Integrity
3. Impartiality
 4. Propriety
5. Equality
6. Competence and Diligence

GROUNDS FOR INHIBITION OF JUDGES:

1. He or his wife, or his child is pecuniarily interested as
heir, legatee, creditor
2. Relation to either party within the 6th degree of
consanguinity or affinity or to the counsel within the 4 th
degree of civil degree
3. When he was an executor, guardian, trustee or counsel
4. When he has presided in inferior court where his ruling or
decision is the subject matter of review