LSZ refutes 700 lawyers under investigation claim ...

LSZ refutes 700 lawyers under investigation claim as fake news

Tariro Tumbukayi

The Law Society of Zimbabwe has refuted that over 700 lawyers are currently under investigation for theft of trust funds and that it is deregistering over 100 lawyers a year.

In a statement LSZ said utterances from a speech by lawyer Mr Lloyd Mhishi during his book launch were used negatively as a weapon to attack the profession.

In his speech launching the book, Mr Lloyd Mhishi bemoaned the waning standards amongst some legal practitioners.
This was latched on to by some sections of the media and commentators to sound the proverbial death knell on the legal profession.
Mr Mhishi did not refer to any statistics and did not expressly state the purpose of the book as aimed at unearthing the prevalence of unprofessional conduct, notably theft of trust funds.
He rather exhorted members of the profession to remain vigilant and protect the core values of the legal profession. The statistics purportedly presented by some sections of the media are woefully inaccurate.

LSZ said the statistics used come from an unrelated and fake story from 2023.

According to the LSZ website a total of 67 lawyers have been deregistered since 1997. 2019 and 2020 had the highest deregistration stats when 9 lawyers lost their practicing rights. 2016 saw 8 lawyers deregistered. Only 1 lawyer was deregistered in 2022 while 4 lost their licenses in 2023.

"It is sad that writers do not bother to fact check but rather prefer perennially recycling totally wrong information and packaging it for the public to grab cheap attention.

“Such statements unnecessarily cause alarm and despondency among the public who entrust their legal affairs to the hands of the profession’s members,” said LSZ in president in the statement.

There are several reported cases of allegations against lawyers in theft of trust property as well as lawyers with fraudulent qualifications.

The LSZ directory for registered lawyers on the website is dated 2019 indicating that it may have some discrepancies.

The LSZ said the profession remains effectively regulated and that the public can entrust their affairs to legal practitioners without fear of prejudice.