As far as I know, in Singapore, lawyers have very high social status, have high incomes and are respected a lot by people. Also, being a lawyer is very difficult in Singapore because of strict requirements, selections and rules. But thanks to these, the public trust lawyers indeed and speak highly of them. When faced with conflicts, people are used to turning to lawyers for help firstly, which indicates that lawyers are upright and trusty in people’s mind.
However, in recent years, complaints against lawyers have been going up in Singapore. Most of the complaints are about “inadequate professional service” which including delays by lawyers, diputes over fees or failing to deliver on promises; and “lawyer misconduct” which can range from serial overcharging to filching cients’ money. Some lawyers think some complaints are caused by a communication gap which can be exacerbated by a cultural gap when the clients involved are foreigners.
From the complaints, we can see that some of the lawyers are involved in some behaviors which break the law. This is a terrible thing, since lawyers can be seen as ones who know and learn laws best. If they take advantages of the laws to do crimes, the consequences are obviously quite serious.
Besides, if the complaints against lawyers are continuously going up, there will be quite negative effects on all of the lawyers. With the complaints rising, people may start to doubt whether lawyers are trusful enough to be depended on. Permanent complaints may distroy the good reputation of lawyers.
What is more, since there are more and more complaints, maybe there are more and more conflicts which need lawyers to be involved in to solve. Although the living conditions become better and better, people still need to care about their spirit civilization, the society need to be more harmonious. But in opposite, this also indicates that people are becoming more and more familiar with laws, and more and more people know they can protect themselves by laws, which means the democracy and the legal system are being improved.
By Yvonne (Shi Yuanyuan)
I also read some news about the complaints on layers in Singapore recently. I think layers are the windows of the legal system to the normal people, since majority of citizens only know some daily knowledge of law. If citizens think layers are unreliable, the authority of laws and government will be influenced. It will be a very serious problem. In my eyes, layers, as doctors and police, are whom people always turn to for help. The reputation and high social status comes from the efforts they expend for helping people. As the problem arises, the good relationship between citizens and layer is gone. Before the situation become worse, I think the government should do more. First as the citizens zeroed in on the “inadequate professional service”, the government should reinforce the control of the qualification of layers. What is more the monitor of “lawyer misconduct” should also be strengthened. Then the treatment of layers could be increased after the rebuild of reputation. (By Harry)
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