Prosecuting Attorney's Ethical Misconduct

Prosecuting attorneys have ethical principles to maintain or a defendant might be punished for a crime he or she did not commit. As a prosecuting attorney, it is your ethical responsibility to provide truthful, accurate testimony and supportive evidence to justify your claims. If the lawyer knows that evidence was tampered with; an expert witness has strong biases that might affect the case or an eye witness account is not error-free, you should not present the evidence as proof against a defendant. Ethically, it is a prosecuting attorney’s duty to present complete facts, not partial facts, fiction or biased judgments as part of the case against a defendant.

Professional misconduct by prosecuting attorneys is not a new issue Jamaica. According to The Gleaner article written by Daraine Luton, entitled, “Bad Lawyers - More Than 200 Complaints against Attorneys Last Year”; approximately 216 complaints were made against attorneys-at-law by members of the public to the General Legal Council (GLC) in the year 2011-2012. This article also highlighted a case in which attorney, Haughton-Cardenas was found guilty of professional misconduct for her failure to pay over the sum of $2.6 million received by her for the complainant in a suit in which she acted for the complainant against Northern Caribbean University for wrongful dismissal and defamation. The defendant paid to Haughton-Cardenas the sum of $2.6 million by cheque dated 18th April, 2008, which was lodged on April 22, 2008. Haughton failed to pay over the sum collected or any part thereof as she was required to do, and she failed to account to the complainant for her money when she was reasonably required to do so in breach of Canon VII (b) of the Canons of Professional Ethics Rules.

As I have seen in many of these cases relating to ethical misconduct of attorneys, there is a failure to pay over money or failure to provide clients with all information as to the progress of their case. As representatives of clients, an officer of law and citizen they are expected to maintain a certain level of “good” conduct in society.  Simply put, though they don’t on numerous occasions attorneys are persons who should always uphold justice as they are a part of the face of justice.

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