TRUST IN THE COURTS: A committee said people would lose their belief in the fairness of judicial officials if a formerly convicted prosecutor were allowed to become attorney
Taipei Times
Date: Jan 02, 2018
By: Shih Hsiao-kuang and Sherry Hsiao / Staff reporter, with staff writer
Judges and prosecutors who have been charged with corruption or who lack the moral disposition to practice law should not be allowed to become attorneys, the Control Yuan’s Committee on Judicial and Prison Administration Affairs said in a report published late last month.
The Tainan Bar Association on Oct. 12 appealed to the Supreme Court after the Tainan District Court and the Tainan branch of the Taiwan High Court ruled against the association in a lawsuit over whether former Nantou District Prosecutor Wang Chao-chen (王朝震), who has been convicted of corruption, should be given membership and be allowed to practice law.
According to Article 4 of the Attorney Regulation Act (律師法), “any person having been convicted of a crime and been sentenced to a term of imprisonment of greater than one year, said conviction involving a crime of moral turpitude affecting their moral fitness to practice law and for that reason having been disbarred by the Attorney Disciplinary Committee” is disqualified from practicing law, with the exception of people who have received a suspended sentence.
According to the high court and district court’s legal interpretation, although the first item of the article states that people who have been convicted of a crime and sentenced to a term of imprisonment of greater than one year cannot practice law, they do not unequivocally lose their qualification. [FULL STORY]