The Independent Legal Ser­vices Commission suspend­ed Lautoka-based lawyer Aman Ravindra-Singh’s legal practising certificate on Monday.

This was after he was found guilty of professional miscon­duct by the former Commissioner Thomas Hickie in November, 2018.

In his judgement, Commission­er Daniel Goundar said Ravin­dra-Singh failed to respond to a complaint lodged by his client Shailesh Kumar in October, 2017 as required by the Chief Registrar on two occasions.

He said Ravindra-Singh was aware of the allegations against him and he failed to respond to it within the stipulated time and did not comply with the directive un­til March 22, 2019.

Ravindra-Singh had pleaded not guilty to the charge.

The orders of the Commission are: the legal practitioner is pub­licly reprimanded; his practising certificate is suspended until he provides a sufficient and satisfac­tory explanation in writing to the Chief Registrar regarding the complaint and complies with the costs order.

Ravindra-Singh is also ordered to pay costs to the Commission in the sum of $3000 and to the Chief Reg­istrar in the sum of $5000.

Commissioner Goundar said during the hearing Ravindra-Sin­gh did not take any responsibil­ity for his conduct but instead, he tried to justify his conduct saying he had reasonable excuses.

He said that Ravindra-Singh’s excuse were that he did not have a valid practising certificate to respond to the complaint against him and that he delegated the re­sponsibility to respond to the com­plaint to one of his employees.

However, the Commission found that Ravindra-Singh had a valid certificate during the period he was required to respond to the complaint, and that in the event, he did not have a valid practising certificate, he was still obliged to respond to the complaint, and that it was his responsibility to respond which he could not have delegated to his employee.

Commissioner Goundar said the complaint against Ravindra-Singh remained unresolved and the professional misconduct was continuing. He said the purpose of the sanction was to deter both the legal practitioner and other lawyers from engaging in profes­sional misconduct of this nature in the future.

“Such professional misconduct can potentially harm the reputa­tion of lawyers and bring the le­gal profession into disrepute,” Mr Goundar said.

“In the past, similar professional misconduct has attracted sanc­tions such as public reprimand, fine and suspension of practising certificate for a fixed period.

“The nature of the sanction that is imposed will depend on factors such as the seriousness of the ac­tual conduct of the legal practi­tioner and the mitigating and ag­gravating circumstances of that conduct.”

Edited by Susana Tuilau

Feedback: ashna.kumar@fijisun.com.fj