IBP-BY-LAWS Flashcards
What are the general objectives of the IBP?
- To ELEVATE the standards of the legal profession
- To IMPROVE the administration of justice
- To ENABLE the bar to discharge its public responsibility effectively
Legal Basis: Sec. 2 IBP-BY-LAWS
What are the purposes of the IBP?
[1] Assist in the administration of justice;
[2] Foster and maintain, on the part of its members, high ideals of integrity, learning, professional competence, public service and conduct;
[3] Safeguard the professional interests of its members;
[4] Cultivate among its members a spirit of cordiality and brotherhood;
[5] Provide a forum for the discussion of law, jurisprudence, law reform, pleading, practice and procedure, and the relations of the Bar to the Bench and to the public, and publish information relating thereto;
[6] Encourage and foster legal education; and
[7] Promote a continuing program of legal research in substantive and adjective law, and make reports and recommendations thereon.
Legal Basis: Sec. 2 IBP-BY-LAWS
Bar Integration
[Section 1, REPUBLIC ACT No. 6397 AN ACT PROVIDING FOR THE INTEGRATION OF THE PHILIPPINE BAR, AND APPROPRIATING FUNDS THEREFOR.]
Supreme Court may adopt rules of court to effect the integration of the Philippine Bar under such conditions as it shall see fit in order to raise the standards of the legal profession, improve the administration of justice, and enable the bar to discharge its public responsibility more effectively.
What does Bar integration provides?
[In matter of the integration of the Bar of the Philippines -1973]
Integration does not make a lawyer a member of any group of which he is already a member. He became a member of the Bar when he passed the Bar Examiniations.
All that integration actually does is to provide an official national organization for the well-defined but unorganized and incohesive group of which every lawyer is already a member.
Membership dues of the IBP
Section 9- Rule 139-A
Section 9. Membership dues. — Every member of the Integrated Bar shall pay such annual dues as the Board of Governors shall determine with the approval of the Supreme Court. A fixed sum equivalent to ten percent (10%) of the collection from each Chapter shall be set aside as a Welfare Fund for disabled members of the Chapter and the compulsory heirs of deceased members thereof.
Effect of non-payment of dues [IBP]
Section 10-Rule 139-A
Section 10. Effect of non-payment of dues. — Subject to the provisions of Section 12 of this Rule, default in the payment of annual dues for six months shall warrant suspension of membership in the Integrated Bar, and default in such payment for one year shall be a ground for the removal of the name of the delinquent member from the Roll of Attorneys.
Does the exemption granted to senior citizens act include payment of membership or association dues?
No.
A lawyer can only engage in the practice of law only by paying his dues, and it does not matter if his practice is “limited”. The exemption granted to senior citizens in RA No. 7432 (Senirs Citizen Act) does not include payment of membership or association dues.
Legal Basis: Santos v. Llamas, A.C No 4749, 2000
Can a Filipino lawyer staying abroad be exempted from payment of membership dues?
No.
In case involving a Filipino lawyer staying abroad, the Supreme Court said that there is nothing in the law or rules, which allows his exemption from payment of membership dues.
At most, he could have have informed the Secrtary of the IBP of his intention to stay abroad before he left. In such case his membership in the IBP could have been terminated and his obligation to pay dues discontinued.
Legal Basis: Letter of Atty. Arevalo, B.M. 1370 (2005)
IBP membership fee is an exaction.
Legal Basis: In the Matter of the IBP, supra]
A membership fee in the IBP is an exaction for regulation, while the purpose of a tax is revenue. If the Court has inherent power to regulate the bar, it follows that as an incident to the regulation, it may impose a membership fee for that purpose.
It would not be possible to push through an Integrated Bar program without means to defray the concomitant expenses. The DOCTRINE OF IMPLIED POWERS necessarily includes the power to impose such exaction.
Characteristic of IBP.
IBP is essentially a semi-governmental entity, a private organization endowed with certain governmental attributes. While it is composed of lawyers who are private individuals, the IBP exist to perform certain vital functions and to assist the government particularly in the improvement of the administration of justice, the upgrading of the standards of the legal profession, and its proper regulation.
Elections of the IBP
Legal Basis: In re: 1989 Elections of the IBP, A.M. No.491 (1989)
The basic postulate of the IBP is that it is nonpolitical in character and that there shall be neither lobbying nor campaigning in the choice of IBP Officers.
The fundamental assumption is that the officers would be chosen on the basis of professional merit and willingness and ability to serve. Ther ardor with which the candidates pursued the presidency of the association detracted from the dignity of the legal profession.
The spectacle of lawyers bribing or being bribed to vote did not uphold the honor of the profession nor elevate it in the public’s esteem.
