Code of Professional Responsibility

The Lawyer's Oath is a source of obligations and duties for every lawyer, and any violation thereof by an attorney constitutes a ground for disbarment, suspension or other disciplinary action. The Lawyer's Oath is a sacred trust that must be upheld and keep inviolable.

Lawyers are licensed officers of the courts empowered to appear, prosecute and defend the legal causes for their clients. As a consequence, peculiar duties, responsibilities and liabilities are devolved upon them by law. Neither vindictiveness nor harassment could be a substitute for resorting to the appropriate legal remedies. The aim of every lawsuit should be to render justice to the parties according to law, not to harass them. A lawyer shall observe and maintain the respect due to the courts and to the judicial officers and should insist on similar conduct by others; A lawyer shall not attribute to a judge motives not supported by the record or have no materiality to the case. Being an officer of the court, a lawyer must resist the whims and caprices of his clients and temper his client's propensities to litigate, so must he equally guard himself against his own impulses of initiating unfounded suits (A.C. 7474, September 09, 2014).

Judicial Errors

"A trial judge is not accountable for performing his judicial functions and office because such performance is a matter of public duty and responsibility. The judge's office and duty to render and administer justice, being functions of sovereignty, should not be taken for granted. No administrative charge for manifest partiality, gross misconduct and gross ignorance of the law should be brought against him for the orders issued in the course of judicial proceedings." - Justice Bersamin

It is settled that a judge's failure to interpret the law or to properly appreciate the evidence presented does not necessarily render him administratively liable. Only judicial errors tainted with fraud, dishonesty, gross ignorance, bad faith, or deliberate intent to do an injustice will be administratively sanctioned. To hold otherwise would be to render judicial office untenable, for no one called upon to try the facts or interpret the law in the process of administering justice can be infallible in his judgment.

If a party is prejudiced by the order of a judge, his remedy lies with the proper court for appropriate judicial action and not with the Office of the Court Administrator by means of an administrative complaint.