LEGALTIPS is anchored by Ms CIA Ofoegbunam, an Abuja-based lawyer who is passionate about legal practice.
LEGALTIPS offers quick hints on substantive law, as well as rules of practice and procedure, and serves as a handy reference guide to lawyers, especially in court.
Published on a weekly basis, the LEGALTIPS Series is CIA’s modest contribution to legal development in Nigeria.
This is a nice read. But how about a situation where the opposing counsel denies ever making an agreement with another counsel, especially in a situation where there are no witnesses?
Kudos to Ms CIA for this noble initiative.
The interesting twist introduced by Atuegwu McAnthony is the very thing Rule 27 RPC seeks to regulate: the need for counsel to demonstrate utmost good faith whether or not there are witnesses to agreements reached with, or promises made to, opposing counsel.
The question of denial will not arise if the court is not made aware of the existence of an agreement between counsel in the first place. It is only on a subsequent date that the issue will come up.
However, it would be most unfortunate if indeed a counsel reached an agreement with opposing counsel but recants and takes advantage of his colleague’s absence in court. His reputation as an untrustworthy dude will haunt him, and he might even find himself at the receiving end of treachery in future.
I think it was Justin Timberlake who once sang that ‘what goes around comes around’! Integrity remains the most important weapon in the lawyer’s toolkit, even though it is fast becoming a scarce vegetation in today’s Nigeria.