The Disciplinary Board of the Cyprus Bar Association has fined a lawyer €2,500 after he failed to appear before the International Protection Administrative Court, leading to the dismissal of his client’s appeal for international protection and an order for the client to pay €500 in costs. The client had sought asylum in the Republic of Cyprus, citing a threat to his life in his country of origin. An aggravating factor was that the lawyer did not inform his client of the dismissal or of the possibility of having the case reinstated, and took no steps to remedy the consequences of his omission. The appeal had been set for hearing on 30 October 2024. The lawyer did not appear on the day and had not told his client, who could otherwise have attended in person. As a result, the appeal was dismissed and the complainant was ordered to pay €500 in costs.
A diary error
At the mitigation hearing, the lawyer said he had been practising since 2002 and that this was his first appearance before the Disciplinary Board. He argued that the omission was due to an error in entering the date in his diary, as the case file had not been marked correctly, and stressed that he had never intended to miss the hearing. He added that he had received only €200 from his client, the amount covering the stamp duties for the appeal, and had collected no other fee. The board found that the lawyer’s negligence amounted to a serious disciplinary offence, since it not only led to the dismissal of the appeal and the €500 costs order against his client, but he also took no action to correct or limit the damage. Particular weight was given to the subject of the appeal, as its dismissal meant the complainant’s application for international protection was never examined on its merits. The board stressed that such cases concern the protection of fundamental rights, including protection from torture and inhuman or degrading treatment, private and family life, liberty, life and physical integrity.
The decision
In its decision, the board underlined that lawyers’ duty to appear before the courts takes on particular importance when their failure to do so can lead to the dismissal of a case concerning their client’s fundamental rights. In setting the penalty, it took into account the lawyer’s long career without any previous disciplinary conviction, the fact that the omission was the result of negligence rather than intent, his immediate admission of the charge and expression of remorse, and that he had received no payment beyond the €200 for stamp duties. Despite these mitigating factors, the board ruled that the seriousness of the offence called for a penalty with a sufficiently deterrent effect. It reprimanded the lawyer, fined him €2,500 and ordered him to pay €250 towards the costs of the disciplinary proceedings.
