The other day a friend forwarded a message on a whatsapp group on the land buying procedure. The message largely highlighted how you only need a lawyer to; draft a sale agreement at Ksh 4,000/= to save legal costs and how one can carry on the Conveyancing transactions on their own. This caused me anguish.
I am a lawyer yes but the angst was not because this kind of thinking would take away my daily bread. No. My sorrow and grieve emanates from the fact that legal professionals have the knowledge of the applicable laws and rules of procedure, ability to relate facts unlike a non professional.
Any successful business entities sets budgets for qualified and trained professionals. The professionals are equipped on the day to day running of the business for efficiency and protection. I will list a few advantages of hiring a lawyer for your business even though from the face of it you might think that you can carry out business transactions in their exclusivity thanks to the internet:-
- Cheap is expensive
Money is a great factor. Businesses want to cut costs and make more profits and would do anything to spend less on labour. Clients who are running businesses often approach me to draft contracts after which I do not hear from them again. Why? The contracts are later edited and new names are inserted with those of new employees. What these business owners do not understand is that any contract is tailor made for each employee.
Eventually the employers end up in legal suits after summary dismissals of employees for instance where the contract signed did not outline the procedure of terminations from employment.
The employer may have edited a contract by inserting a new name on a contract that I had previously prepared for an intern resulting to multi suits and huge costs in damages to the ex-employees by courts that would have been avoided if he had hired a professional to prepare each and every contract for their employees and dealings.
- Specialised services
Lawyers go to school and get trained on providing legal services. The training takes years of studying, analysing, practice and equipping. A lawyer from law school then comes out with the sole responsibility to change the society not even to make money.
A lawyer hence has a duty to exercise due care and skill in the conduct of his client’s assignment by holding himself out to his clients as having adequate skill and knowledge required to conduct all business which he undertakes, both contentious and non-contentious.
The lawyer then owes a greater duty to his client and in his doing so dedicates most of his time and energy in representing a client. It is then beneficial to hire this professional to act on your behalf as he is responsible and knowledgeable to carry the service on your behalf.
- Reprieve in case of losses
When you engage a legal professional, he or she is answerable in case of any professional negligence or losses to the business. The Advocates (Professional Indemnity) Regulations, 2004 provide that every advocate practising on his own behalf shall purchase a policy of insurance. The purpose of which every advocate must have an indemnity cover is for the sole purpose of compensating clients for loss or damage from claims in respect of any civil liability or breach of trust.
Therefore a client may bring an action against his advocate for negligence and be compensated for damages because the law has made provision for the same.
Conclusion
Cheap is expensive. Hire a professional for the sake of growth of your business and you will not regret it. One famous Judge by the name of Lord Denning had to this to say:-
“…A magistrate says to a man: ‘you can ask any questions you like;’ whereupon the man immediately starts to make a speech. If justice is to be done, he ought to have the help of someone to speak for him; and who better than a lawyer who has been trained for the task?”
Ngugi Mburu is a Commercial and Litigation lawyer with a reputable Law Firm in Nairobi. Email: [email protected] for any queries or clarifications.
