A JUDGE has called on the Law Society to deal with the problem of lawyers hiring private investigators to entrap competitors they suspect of using touts to drum up business.
Touting involves a lawyer paying a fee to a real estate agent who refers a client to him. Lawyers who do this face disciplinary action, and some competitors have apparently been hiring investigators to pose as touts in order to catch them in the act.
In his written judgment on a recent case, released last week, Justice V.K. Rajah called on the society to address these problems 'immediately, thoroughly and fairly'.
In February 2004, lawyer Rayney Wong was alleged to have agreed to pay a woman named Jenny Lee a referral fee for obtaining property work for his firm.
Unknown to Mr Wong, Ms Lee was a private investigator hired by another law firm. Posing as an estate agent, she arranged to meet Mr Wong on Feb 17 that year and offered him a prospective client in return for a cut of his fees.
Mr Wong denied paying her any referral fees, but admitted reimbursing her for certain entertainment expenses.
The two meetings between Mr Wong and Ms Lee were secretly taped and formed a major part of the evidence in the Law Society's case against Mr Wong when the matter was heard before a disciplinary committee.
The committee found he had a case to answer, but Mr Wong refused to file his defence. Instead, he applied to the High Court to, among other things, stop the committee from continuing to investigate the matter and force it to exclude Ms Lee's evidence and recorded conversations.
In his written judgment rejecting Mr Wong's application, Justice Rajah discussed the issue of entrapment at length and said the current rules did not allow the committee to exclude Ms Lee's evidence.
But he added: 'Instances like this bring no credit to the profession and serve, on the contrary, only to corrode its standing,' he said.
The disciplinary committee hearings against Mr Wong are understood to have arisen from a 2004 probe by three law firms, which hired private investigators to check if competing law firms were offering fees to estate agents.
Lawyers contacted by The Straits Times said the practice was rife then because of the weak property market.
Contacted yesterday, Law Society president Philip Jeyaretnam said Justice Rajah's views had been noted.
He said: 'Traditional enforcement of rules of professional conduct in Singapore and elsewhere has depended on the making of complaints or submission of information by persons aggrieved.
'Whether the society should go further and actively investigate in the absence of complaints or information received is a question which the council (of the Law Society) will consider.
'However, there are considerable difficulties, both practical and philosophical, in such a step,' he added.
vijayan@sph.com.sg
