The Supreme Court has granted a special relief to suspended human rights lawyer, Francis Xavier Sosu, to file an appeal against a three-year suspension handed him by the General Legal Council (GLC).
The disgruntled lawyer went to the apex court seeking the special relief after the Court of Appeal had dismissed his appeal in November, 2017 because it did not have jurisdiction to hear it (appeal).
According to the Appeals Court, which was presided over by a single judge, Justice Henry Anthony Kwofie, its jurisdiction had been improperly invoked by the applicant.
Justice Kwofie explained that the application for appeal ought to have been filed at the registry of the GLC as prescribed by law.
At the Supreme Court yesterday, Justice Yaw Appau held that the Court of Appeal erred in dismissing the appeal on the grounds that it did not have a proper case pending before it.
He averred that the Disciplinary Committee of the GLC is not a lower court and it is the contention of Sosu that when he went to the offices of the GLC to file the appeal, he was told the GLC does not have a registry for filing of appeals.
Justice Appau held that the Appeals Court judge should have fortified himself with questions of whether Sosu erred in filing the appeal at the court instead of the GLC, and if yes, “is the error so grievous that the doors of appeal should be shut on him?”
He therefore, granted the application for special relief and said that Sosu has seven days to file his notice of appeal.
Background
Francis Xavier Sosu hauled the GLC before the Court of Appeal seeking to overturn a three-year suspension imposed on him when he was found guilty of an alleged professional misconduct by the Council.
The human rights lawyer argued that the sentences imposed on him were harsh and excessive.
The lawyer, in a notice of appeal filed at the court dated June 7, 2017, stated that the GLC erred in convicting him because there is no law specifically making overestimation of legal fees a “grave misconduct in a professional respect.”
A statement issued by the GLC indicated, “The disciplinary committee of the General Legal Council formally charged Lawyer Sosu under Rule 2(4) of the legal profession (Professional Conduct and Etiquette) Rules, 1969 L.I. 613 and that he, while acting as council for Torgbui Afede XIV, in a matter between Torgbui Afede and the Chief of Defense Staff, Minister of Interior, Attorney General and another, took to Facebook with pictures of the parties and comments on the case to the public with his firm’s name, address and telephone numbers attached, with the primary motive of personal advertisement and touting.”
In another case, Mr Sosu was said to have charged one Francis Agyare GH¢20,000 extra in legal fees.
The statement claimed that “Lawyer Sosu was convicted on his own plea of guilty on both counts and was sentenced to a period of three years’ suspension commencing June 2, 2017 and ending 1st day of June, 2020.
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