Fiji law body hopes for improved relations with govt

Transcript

The Fiji Law Society is up and running again and among its plans for the future are taking concerns about certain decrees to the government.

The Society was weakened in 2009 when the regime took away its role issuing law practising certificates and dealing with disciplinary matters meaning a vital loss of funds.

The society's new President Peter Knight told Sally Round it will try to boost membership and improve relations with the government.

PETER KNIGHT: Going forward we see our role as hopefully being a voice for lawyers in Fiji, and because membership is voluntary we are endeavoring to persuade as many practitioners as possible to become members.  We are also endeavoring to organise continuing legal education sessions.

SALLY ROUND: Will you be trying to get that job of the prime issuer of legal practising certificates again.

PK: We are certainly going to hopefully talk to the new Attorney General about that.  I think it's pretty unlikely that they will hand that back this point in time but that remains to be seen.

SR:  What are your hopes for relations with the new government.

PK: We certainly hope to improve them because the law society was defunct there was very little dialogue between either the bench or the Attorney General's office and lawyers in Fiji, so we are certainly hoping to improve those relationships.  We have already had meetings with the Chief Justice and the Chief Registrar of the High Court and they were good meetings, we addressed some of the concerns that members had and they were satisfactorily dealt with and  we planned to maintain and improve that relationship or those relationships.

SR:  And what are you hopes for the administration of justice now that Fiji has moved from the interim state if was before to a democratically elected government.

PK: Well, there were a number of pieces of legislation that were passed during the interim period which were of some concern to the legal profession, we intend to address those. I think primary those pieces of legislation which denied the right to challenge decisions made under those particular pieces of legislation, challenge in the court the decisions that were made by the executive. It is certainly an issue we will address and we will speak to the Attorney General about that if we are able to meet with him and test the waters, so to speak.