Ethical Dilemma on the Nigerian legal loyalty.
Is the legal practitioner's loyalty first to the COURT? Or his CLIENT? To state the obvious, Rules 14 to 25 of the Rules of Professional conduct speaks on the general and specific duties that a legal practitioner owe to his client while Rules 30 to 38 devotes to a lawyer’s duty to the court. The former provides that lawyers must dedicate to the cause of his client and the later provides lawyers being officers of the court. It arouses a twist as to whom the lawyers first loyalty must be to, Is it to the court, alternatively, his client? In reality, a lawyer who has his overriding interest as the court, his client is most likely to suffer, seeing that even though he wants justice to prevail, he also wants that his client is happy. He is made a compulsory officer of the court and in much so, was enrolled to the bar to serve the court but does this effect much on his client? Yes! A client does not want a lawyer who goes to court and instead of being by him, is saying yes to...