RIYADH – The Saudi Ministry of Justice has announced that it took the necessary legal procedures against a number of lawyers who violated the judicial regulations and professional ethics. The cases have been referred to the Lawyers Disciplinary Committee for necessary action, the ministry said. The ministry, in coordination with the Saudi Bar Association (SBA), has detected a number of professional violations committed by some lawyers and these included making statements that contain incorrect information, misleading public opinion and failure to protect the secrets and confidential matters of some clients in a clear breach of trust. Meanwhile, a study is being conducted by a number of relevant authorities to draft a regulation aimed at curbing the misuse of social media by legal professionals. The ministry emphasized that any lawyer who violates the provisions of the legal profession, its executive regulations, the rules of professional conduct, and professional ethics or commits an act that undermines the honor of the profession, shall be punished with the penalties stipulated in the law. The penalties include warning, censure, suspension from practicing the profession for a period not exceeding three years, or dropping their name from the list of practicing lawyers, in addition to revocation of the license to practice. The ministry and SBA are continuously and meticulously following up the proper functioning of the legal profession and the compliance of licensed lawyers to the regulations and rules regulating their work, the ministry said while emphasizing the importance of this profession and the great role that the lawyers play as part of the justice system. The ministry said earlier that there are nearly 18,000 lawyers in the Kingdom. They include 9,541 practicing lawyers — including 1,364 women and 8,177 men — who are registered with the ministry as of mid-April 2021. The number of trainee lawyers who are registered with law firms reached 8,238, including 5,150 men and 3,088 women. The ministry has provided, through its electronic portal, a series of services for lawyers and trainees that they can obtain without the need to visit the ministry's headquarters or its branch offices or law departments across the Kingdom. These services include registration of a new trainee lawyer; transfer of trainee lawyer from one law office to another; query about certified lawyers; status of applications submitted for lawyers' services; updating lawyer's data; displaying list of trainees with a lawyer; addition and exclusion of a trainee from practice, the release of a trainee at the end of training, and the registration of the trainee to practice as a lawyer.
