Introductory Concepts:

Legal Ethics
- Branch of moral science which treats of the duties which the attorney owes to the
Court, to his CLIENT, to his COLLEAGES in the profession, and to the
PUBLIOC, as embodies in the Constitution, Rules of Court, the CPR, the CPE,
jurisprudence, moral law and special law.
Significance of Legal Ethics
- Guards against the abuses and ills of the profession such as dishonesty, deceit,
negligence, immorality and other forms of malpractice.
- Raises the standard of legal profession
- Encourages and enhances the respect for the law
- Assures an effective and efficient administration of justice
- Assists in the keeping and maintenance of law and order
- Provides basis for the weeding out of the unfit and the misfit.
Original Bases Legal Ethics
-

Canon of Legal Profession

Supreme Court Decisions
Statutes
Constitution
Rules of Court
Treatises and Publication

Present Basis of Philippines Legal Ethics

- Code of Professional Responsibility
Regulation of Practice of Law
- Supreme Court (Art VIII, Section 5 (5) 1987 Constitution
- Promulgate rules concerning the protection and enforcement of constitutional
rights, pleading, practice and procedure in all courts, the admission to the practice
of law, the integrated bar and legal assistance to the under-privileged.
Nature of the Power
- Judicial in nature
- Judicial discretion
Meaning of Practice of Law
- Any activity, in or out of court, which requires the application of law, legal
procedure, knowledge, training and experience. Generally, to practice law is to
give advice or render any kind of service which advice or service requires the use
in any degree of legal knowledge or skill. (Cayetano vs. Monsod, GR No 100113,
Sept. 3, 1991)

Basic Characteristic of the Practice of Law

- Nor a mater of right but a mere privilege
- Profession not a business
- Impressed with public interest
- Reserved only to those who are academically trained in law and possessed of
good moral character
Persons entitled to practice law
- Persons admitted embers of the bar and who are in good and regular standing (Sec
1, Rule 138, ROC)
Requirement for the Admission to the Practice of Law
- Citizens of the Philippines
- Resident of the Philippines
- At least 21 years of age
- Of good moral character
- Produce before the SC satisfactory evidence of good moral character
- No charges involving moral turpitude have been filed or pending
- Compiled with the academic requirements
- Pass the bar examinations
- Take lawyers oath, and
- Sign the Roll of Attorney
Supreme Court allowed Filipino graduate of foreign law schools to take the
Philippine Bar
Filipino citizen who are graduates of foreign law school are allowed to take the
bar examination provided they show the following:
- Completion of all courses leading to the degree of Bachelor of Laws or its
equivalent degree
- Recognition or accreditation of the law school by the proper authority
- Completion of all the fourth year subjects in law school duly recognized by the
Philippine Government (SC Bar Matter 1153: RE: Letter of Atty. Estelito
Mendoza (2010))
Continuing Requirement for the Practice of Law
- Good and regular standing
- Membership in the IBP
- Payment of IBP dues
- Payment of professional tax
- Compliance with the MCLE
- Possession of good moral character
Prohibitions and Limitations in the Practice of Law
- Appearance of Non-Lawyers in Court
- Practice of Law by Public Official

Appearance of non-lawyers in court

- General Rule: Only those who are licensed to practice law can appear and handle
cases in court.
- Exceptions:
o Before the MTC
o Before any other courts
o In criminal cases before the MTC
o Law Student Practice Rule
o Before the NLRC
o Before a Cadastral Court
o Before the DARAB
o Any official or person appointed or designated in accordance with the law
to appear for the government or any of its officials
ABSOLUTELY PROHIBITED
- Judges and other official or employees of the superior court
- Officials/employees of the OSG
- Government prosecutor
- President, VP, Members of the Cabinet, their deputies and assistants
- Chairman and members of the Constitutional Commission
- Ombudsman and his deputies
- Governors, city and municipal mayor
- Civil service officers or employees whose duties require them to devote their
entire time at the disposal of the government.
- Those who are by special law are prohibited from engaging in the practice of their
legal profession.
NOT ABSOLUTELY PROHIBITED SPECIAL RESTRICTIONS
- Senators and Members of the Hose of Representative
- Members of the Sanggunian
- Retired Justice of Judge
- Civil service officer or employees whose duty does not require their entire time to
be at the disposal of the government.
Code of Professional Responsibility
- Embodiment into one Code of the various pertinent and subsisting rules,
guidelines and standard on the rules of conduct of lawyer sourced from the
Constitution, Rules of Court, Canons of Professional Ethics, Statutes, special
laws, treatises, and decisions which must be observed by all members of the Bar
in the exercised of their profession whether in or out of court, as well as in their
public and private lives.
The Four-Fold Duties of a Lawyer
- The Lawyer and Society CANON 1-6 CPR
- The Lawyer and the Legal Profession CANON 7-9 CPR

The Lawyer and he Courts CANON 10-13 CPR

The Lawyer and the Client CANON 14-22 CPR

The Lawyers Oath is a condensed Code of Ethics

- a solemn affirmation of the lawyers lifetime commitment to be:
1. a loyal citizen
2. a law abiding person
3. a defender of the rule of law
4. an exemplar of loyalty and fidelity to the courts and to clients
5. a model to emulate both in his profession and private life
-

By swearing the lawyers oath, an attorney becomes a guardian of truth and the
rule of law, and an indispensable instrument in the fair and impartial
administration of justice.

Duties of an Attorney (Section 20, Rule 138, Rules of Court)

a. To maintain allegiance to the Republic of the Philippines and to support the
Constitution and obey the law of the Philippines
b. To observe and maintain the respect due to the courts of justice and judicial
officers;
c. To counsel or maintain such action or proceedings only as appearing to him to be
just, and such defenses only as he believes to be honestly debatable under the law
d. To employ, for the purpose of maintaining the causes confided to him, such means
only as are consistent with truth and honor, and never seek to mislead the judge or
any judicial officer by an artifice or false statement of fact of law.
e. To maintain inviolate the confidence, and at every peril to himself, to preserve the
secrets of his clients, and to accept no compensation in connection with his
clients business except from him or with his knowledge and approval.
f. To abstain from all offensive personality and to advance no fact prejudicial to the
honor or reputation of a party or witness, unless required by the justice of the
cause with which he is charged.
g. Not to encourage either the commencement or the continuance of an action or
proceeding, or delay any mans cause, form any corrupt motive or interest.
h. Never reject, to any consideration personal to himself, the cause of the defenseless
or oppressed.
i. In the defense of a person accused of crime, by all fair and honorable means,
regardless of his personal opinion as to the guilt of the accused to present every
defense that the law permits, to the end that no person may be deprived of life or
liberty, but by due process of law.
CANON 1 Duty to Upload the Constitution and the Laws
- Rule 1.01 Duty not to engage in unlawful, dishonest, immoral and deceitful
conduct
- Rule 1.02 Duty not to counsel illegal activities
- Rule 1.03 Duty not to encourage lawsuit, duty not to delay any mans cause
- Rule 1.04 Duty to encourage amicable settlement

Rule 1.01 Duty not to engage in unlawful, dishonest, immoral and deceitful
conduct
-

Unlawful conduct transgression of any provision of law, need not to be penal.

Dishonest act act of lying or cheating
Grossly immoral or deceitful conduct a conduct which is willful, flagrant, or
shameless, and which shows a moral indifference to the opinion of the good and
respectable members of the community, involves moral turpitude.
Moral turpitude an act of baseness, vileness or depravity in the duties which
one person owes to another of to society in general which is contrary to the
usually accepted and customary rule of right and duty which a person should
follow.

Examples of crimes involving moral turpitude:

- estafa
- bribery
- murder
- seduction
- abduction
- concubine
- smuggling
- falsification of public document
- violation of BP 22
Instances of Gross Immorality
Abandonment of wife and cohabiting with
another
Bigamy perpetrated by the lawyer
A lawyer who had a carnal knowledge with
a woman through a promise of marriage
which he did not fulfill
Seduction of a woman who is the niece of a
married woman with whom the respondent
lawyer had adulterous relations
Concubinage coupled with failure so
support illegitimate children
Maintaining adulterous relationship with a
married woman
Delivering bribe money to a judge on
request of clients
Seducing a woman through promise of a
marriage by a married lawyer

Corresponding Penalty
DISBARRED
DISBARRED
DISBARRED
DISBARRED
SUSPENDED INDEFINELY
SUSPENDED INDEFINELY
STERNLY WARNED
DISBARRED

Rule 1.02 Duty not to counsel illegal activities

- Duty to be performed within the bounds of law
- Model in the community insofar as respect for law is concerned

Rule 1.03 Duty not to encourage lawsuit, duty not to delay any mans cause
- The lawyer owes it to be the society and to the court the duty not to sir up
litigation
- The reason for the rule : to prevent BARRTRY and AMBULANCE CHASING
BARRATY- act of fermenting suit against individuals and offering his legal services to
one of them for monetary motives or purpose.
Ambulance chasing act of chasing (figuratively speaking) an ambulance carrying the
victim of an accident for the purpose of talking to the said victim or relatives and offering
his legal services for the filing of a case against the person who cause the accident.
Rule 1.04 Duty to encourage amicable settlement
-

Whenever the controversy will admit of fair judgment the client should be advised
to avoid or the end the litigation) to avoid litigation expenses and to help courts in
the declogging of cases)
A lawyer cannot compromise case without clients consent (Sec 23, Rule 138,
Rules of Court)
Effect of compromise without clients authority/consent unenforceable, meaning
be ratified by the client if he/she so desired.

Canon 2 Duty to be an Efficient Lawyer

- Rule 2.01 Duty not to reject the cause of the defenseless or oppressed
- Rule 2.02 Duty not to effuse to render legal advice to the defenseless or
oppressed
- Rule 2.03 Duty not to do or permit to be done any act to solicit legal business
- Rule 2.04 Duty not to charge rates lower that those customarily prescribed.
Rule 2.01 Duty not to reject the cause of the defenseless or oppressed
- Oppressed- the victim of cruelty, unlawful exaction, domination or excessive of
authority
- Defenseless those who are not in a position to defend themselves due to poverty,
weakness, ignorance or other similar reasons
- Rationale: It is the lawyers prime duty to see to it that justice is accorded to all
without discrimination.
Legal Aid is a matter of Public Responsibility
- It is a means for the correction of social imbalance that may and often do lead to
injustice.
Rule 2.02 Duty not to effuse to render legal advice to the defenseless or oppressed
- If only to the extent necessary to safeguard the latters right
- Refrain: there is conflict of interest

Rule 2.03 Duty not to do or permit to be done any act to solicit legal business
Reasons for the Prohibition:
- The profession is primarily for public service
- Commercializes the profession
- Involves self-praise and puffing
- Damages public confidence
- May increase lawsuits and result in needless litigation
Solicitation of Legal Business, When Permissible
- Must be compatible with the dignity of the legal profession
- Use of simple design stating the name of the lawyer; use of professional cards
bearing the name of the lawyer, his office and address
- Advertisement in legal periodicals
- Publication in reputable law lists
Primary Characteristics which Distinguishes legal profession from business
Rule 2.04 Duty not to charge rates lower that those customarily prescribed.