Legal Fees & Stamp Duty Calculation When Buying A House In Malaysia

Legal Fees & Stamp Duty Calculation When Buying A House In Malaysia

Where is the lawyer's Code of Professional Responsibility ?

The Code of Professional Responsibility points the way to the aspiring and provides standards by which to judge the transgressor. Each lawyer's own conscience must provide the touchstone against which to test the extent to which the lawyer's actions should rise above minimum standards. But in the last analysis it is the desire for the respect and confidence of the members of the profession and of the society which the lawyer serves that should provide to a lawyer the incentive for the highest possible degree of ethical conduct. The possible loss of that respect and confidence is the ultimate sanction. So long as its practitioners are guided by these principles, the law will continue to be a noble profession. This is its greatness and its strength, which permit of no compromise.

律师的专业守则和职业道德行为提供了人民对他们的尊重和信任。律师只要遵循这些原则，那么律师将继续成为一个崇高的职业。这是它的伟大和它的实力。

The Code of Professional Responsibility consists of three separate but interrelated parts: Canons, Ethical Considerations, and Disciplinary Rules. The Code is designed to be both an inspirational guide to the members of the profession and a basis for disciplinary action when the conduct of a lawyer falls below the required minimum standards stated in the Disciplinary Rules.

Obviously the Canons, Ethical Considerations, and Disciplinary Rules cannot apply to non-lawyers; however, they do define the type of ethical conduct that the public has a right to expect not only of lawyers but also of their non-professional employees and associates in all matters pertaining to professional employment. A lawyer should ultimately be responsible for the conduct of the lawyer's employees and associates in the course of the professional representation of the client.

The Canons are statements of axiomatic norms, expressing in general terms the standards of professional conduct expected of lawyers in their relationships with the public, with the legal system, and with the legal profession. They embody the general concepts from which the Ethical Considerations and the Disciplinary Rules are derived.

The Ethical Considerations are aspirational in character and represent the objectives toward which every member of the profession should strive. They constitute a body of principles upon which the lawyer can rely for guidance in many specific situations.

The Disciplinary Rules, unlike the Ethical Considerations, are mandatory in character. The Disciplinary Rules state the minimum level of conduct below which no lawyer can fall without being subject to disciplinary action. The Disciplinary Rules should be uniformly applied to all lawyers, regardless of the nature of their professional activities. The Code makes no attempt to prescribe either disciplinary procedures or penalties for violation of a Disciplinary Rule, nor does it undertake to define standards for civil liability of lawyers for professional conduct. The severity of judgment against one found guilty of violating a Disciplinary Rule should be determined by the character of the offense and the attendant circumstances. An enforcing agency, in applying the Disciplinary Rules, may find interpretive guidance in the basic principles embodied in the Canons and in the objectives reflected in the Ethical Considerations.

No codification of principles can expressly cover all situations that may arise. Accordingly, conduct that does not appear to violate the express terms of any Disciplinary Rule nevertheless may be found by an enforcing agency to be the subject of discipline on the basis of a general principle illustrated by a Disciplinary Rule or on the basis of an accepted common law principle applicable to lawyers.

个案：律师因为来自顾客的压力，没有根据买卖合约的条款，而根据顾客的要求写了一封信给对方的顾客要求赔偿比买卖合约所设定的利息数目更高。身为专业操守的律师，律师在顾客的要求下，应该以专业的态度解释给他的顾客知道这是违反买卖合约的条款的，而应该根据买卖合约的条款给予的权利征收合约里已经规定的赔偿利息。
律师自己本身没有给予他的顾客适当的劝告还出了一封信给对方的顾客，却让这封信成为日后的呈堂证据。

Another Ilegal Land Transfer

A land owner recently has confirmed to sold his land and later his lawyer found that the particular vacant land already been sold some times ago under another unknown people name without his knowledge and currently the piece of land had been caveated by a financial institution which believe that the said land had used as collateral.

利商工作队惊人发现 待领地契堆积土地局

（八打灵再也22日讯）首相署利商工作队属下特工队最近突袭检查土地及矿物局，惊见数以万计已处理好的各种地契及屋契证书，因律师没有代客户认领而在该局堆积如山，连货仓、铁架都被挤得爆满。
特工队甚至发现一些分局因为地方不够，把地契证书都堆放在地上。一些分局则考虑在外头租赁地方存放这些重要文件，然而，苦等地契的人们却懵然不知。
考虑租地存放文件 这种现象引起特工队关注，担心把地契证书放在地上或存在外头会有风险，包括发生火灾或遗失等状况。
特工队发现积存的文件包括地契、高中级公寓分层地契等。有些文件早在2004年已处理好，但竟然囤了几年也没人来认领。
一般上，该局囤存的地契及证书都已处理好3个月至一年。
据了解，即使一些分局要购买铁架存放这些重要文件，也不够空间摆放，何况它们已无额外拨款供购买铁架，也不知道该如何处理这项问题。
据悉，迫得把这些文件放在地上的包括莎阿南土地局，特工队产业注册专案小组认为这么做肯定有风险。
该小组主席拿督萧浩健博士与成员拿督黄奇仁，以及特工队成员蔡兆源揭发，全国各地土地局都有上述现象，雪兰莪州如莎阿南、八打灵再也等，以及联邦直辖区分局的情况最严重。
律师收费后没跟进
萧浩健向《南洋商报》指出，雪隆一带申请注册的土地比较多，因此地契证书堆积的现象也最严重。他说，这是因为不少律师向客户收费后，却没有积极跟进申请地 契证书事宜。 据了解，该局认为某些律师雇用的“跑腿”效率不彰。 萧浩健与黄奇仁说，他们揭露这种不为人所知的现象，是为了让地主、屋主和银行知道，他们的地契证书可能已处理好。 特工队劝人们尽快查询律师，催促后者认领地契证书，以免夜长梦多。
他们披露，此事已引起隆雪中华总商会、银行公会等单位关注。
新闻背景
鼓励原地主亲自办理手续
2010年3月17日，土地及矿物局总监拿督阿都哈林接受《南洋商报》专访时，鼓励有意转让土地的原地主亲自到土地局办理手续，不仅可快速办妥，而且可避免欺诈问题，否则该局可能需花较长的时间核对身分。
接着，阿都哈林在5月23日接受媒体访问时，证实今年1月起，该局已实行一天内完成土地转让与注册程序，为了消弭公众对土地欺骗案的担忧，当局已与警方、国民登记局和内陆税收局紧密合作，加强监督。