The legal position in brief

It has been "put about" that Amaral and his lawyer have colluded in some way for the lawyer to be "sacked" therefore causing a delay to the trial.

And this has, it seems, been widely applauded in some quarters as a brilliant move.

A little background. When a lawyer is admitted, he becomes an officer of the court. This overides his responsibility to his firm. The following paper is quite interesting on the subject

http://www.weirfoulds.com/files/11024_10167_CEA%20-%20A%20Lawyer%27s%20Duty%20to%20the%20Court.pdf


This is one of the reasons why a stunt such as the one pulled by Amaral is not going to go down too well, with the court and with other members of the profession. Who will know.

I gather the poster known as PeterMac has lauded the move. Was he actually ever a real policeman? I really do find it hard to believe.

Thanks very much J-P.

Of course some of us think it was done with malice aforethought and a disgusting move as such.

Petey is in the right forum with the brilliant lawyer Bennett, as they complement each other so well. Both in their incompetence and obvious lack of legal knowledge.

If he hadn't stated he was a retired police man, I would never have believed it.

Pretendypete knows nothing about the most basic laws of England and Wales. If you remember, he didn't even know what custody laws were. Or test purchasing.

But he certainly knew how to raise shutters which he said couldn't be......

A very good question on Myths, concerning the report in Expresso (note for thicko haters, Expresso is NOT the Express)-

Gonçalo Amaral dismisses lawyer by SMS
Former PJ inspector dismissed attorney two days before the last session of the trial that opposes the McCanns. Hearing was adjourned to July 8

At ten in the evening of Friday the Santos de Oliveira lawyer received an SMS from Gonçalo Amaral to dispense with their services.

So what was Oliviera doing in court, still defending his unsavoury client?

Myths:

http://stopthemyths.prophpbb.com/post239051.html#p239051


Santos was fired Friday night - why was he at court yesterday at all? He'd been fired, according to him 3 days before.

Very stinky indeed.

Is it necessary for the dismissed lawyer to inform the court of that if he doesn't have an alternative in place?  

I know in California you have to inform the court by filing a notice, I think it's a notice of substitution?   Other courts in different countries may have something similar?

Anyway, however you look at this, the whole event was planned, that's for certain.

It's Portugal, you probably have to tie the notice to a passing seagull's leg, or something. Frankly, if Gonzo wanted to make Portuguese courts look ridiculous, he couldn't have bettered this stunt.

And if his lawyer was involved, I hope he gets disbarred.

I totally agree with you Bonny. Was just wondering what their procedure would be.

What they did was calculated to cause the greatest amount of disruption and upset and that is evident.

Isabel Duarte is no idiot. She will take care of the legalities for sure.

Sooner or later Portugal will need to do damage control so someone there has to be keeping an eye on the incompetent one. They can only take so much.......

Maybe they might like to banish him to Harlow.