In the Kingdom’s Western Region, locals colloquially call them “dawajiya” in Arabic, which refers to people who practice the legal profession without a law degree or license. They are agents or more precisely attorneys-in-fact.
Most work as expeditors, or “muqibeen” in Arabic, and have extensive experience in legal procedures at government agencies, including courts. Licensed lawyers have long complained that such individuals are not qualified and should not be allowed to practice law under any circumstances.
The Ministry of Justice allows these unlicensed legal practitioners to take up to three cases a year, Al-Riyadh daily reports on the controversial dawajiya.
Unqualified
Khalid Al-Salih, a lawyer and chairman of the Lawyers’ Committee, Asharqia Chamber of Commerce and Industry, described them as unqualified.
“To stand before a court of law and defend your client is not an easy task and requires high qualification and a law degree. Let us not forget about the ethical code lawyers are required to abide by,” Al-Salih said, while adding some unlicensed legal practitioners take advantage of people and charge them more money than lawyers would charge.
He called upon the Saudi Bar Association to amend Article (18) of the Saudi Code of Law, which stipulates that “The lawyers whose names are registered on the list of practicing lawyers shall be exclusively entitled to litigate on behalf of third parties before courts of law or the Board of Grievances or the committees referred to in Article 1 hereunder. By way of exception, third parties may be represented by the following: (a) An attorney-in-fact in one to three cases. If he has previously handled three cases on behalf of three different persons, he shall not be entitled to represent any other party…”
“The exception in this article has given unlicensed legal practitioners or private attorneys a chance to represent others before a court of law and do the job of a lawyer. This article needs to be amended and all negative and positives aspects thereof should be covered and looked into again,” he stressed.
No regulations
Attorney Abdulaziz Al-Oraifi said the number of legal representatives who do not have a law license has increased as the Ministry of Commerce and Industry continues to issue permits to them to act as debt collectors and they abuse this permit to offer services that are strictly limited to lawyers.
“These representatives do not have the skills to defend and argue before a court of law but still get money for it. Some of them cheat the public, most of whom are unable to differentiate between a lawyer and an individual without a law license,” he said while adding many courts allow attorneys-in-fact to defend cases and do not impose any requirements or regulations on them.
Ayesh Al-Otaibi, who represents clients before courts as an attorney-in-fact, insists that others like him have extensive experience in legal procedures, which they have acquired without going to a law school.
“Most legal agents study the cases well and write strong defense/claim statements while lawyers rely on consultants to write such statements,” he emphasized.
He further said the majority of lawyers tend to take up several cases at the same time and end up assigning the cases to paralegals. He called on the Ministry of Justice to allow attorneys-in-fact to take up more than three cases a year.
