Fate of a legal practitioner in Nigeria adjudged guilty of professional misconduct

Abstract

This paper seeks to resort to a way forward in the face of the current deadlock arising from the Supreme Court decision in two cases emanating from the Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Committee. Since the Supreme Court, being the highest court in Nigeria, has given its decision on the two cases, there is no further appeal on the matter except the Supreme Court revisits its decision and chooses to deviate from it. Thus the decision of the Supreme Court stands out whether it is criticised or not, except the court reviews its decision. But the court cannot make an Order in futility. The Order of the court must be obeyed. Where there is no avenue for an Order of the court to be obeyed, what happens? In the face of a deadlock, what route can be resorted to in obeying the Court’s Order? This is the focus of this paper.

Keywords: Legal Practitioner, Professional Misconduct, Guilty of, Fate of, Nigeria