Is it crime to act as lawyer without license?

Of course it is a crime. Go see the local Procurador...tell him about it. Name, proof etc...

Our resident lawyer should say something about this, but I am fairly sure that this is called something like "counterfeiting public and private documents" or something to that effect. This is because the exercise of a profession without certification can have serious effects.


HB

It's called "ejercicio ilegal de la profesi?n"

Art. 20 of Law 91 of 1983: Toda persona que sin estar debidamente admitida para el ejercicio de la profesi?n, seg?n se dispone por esta Ley, o que durante su suspensi?n como miembro, ejerza la profesi?n de abogado, se anuncie como tal o trate de hacerse pasar como abogado en ejercicio, ser? castigado con multa de Quinientos Pesos Oro (RD$ 500,00) a Mil Pesos Oro (RD$ 1,000.00) o prisi?n de dos meses a un a?o, o ambas penas. Los Jueces Fiscales y dem?s autoridades p?blicas velar?n por el cumplimiento de esta disposici?n en lo que ata?e a los abogados que practiquen diligencias judiciales o extrajudiciales ante los tribunales, juzgados, fiscal?as u otras oficinas a su cargo, constituyendo falta grave la violaci?n por parte de ellos de la presente disposici?n.

The fines have been eaten up by inflation, but imprisonment of two months to a year could still be dissuasive.

Don Fabio: A purely hypothetical question.

Supposing that this person has acted in hundreds of cases as an "illegal" exercise of the profession. Would it be possible to charge him in EACH of the cases in which he acted illegally? This would then constitute $100,000s of pesos in fines, and 200 months in jail, if he were convicted of each crime separately and the sentences served consecutively...an even greater dissuasive!!

Would this be hypothetically possible in the Dominican court system??

Cordialmente,
HB

over twenty plus years of living in and out of the DR the number of lawyers i've met is quite high. i've also met tons of other "professionals", all have business cards. that's a dead giveaway, take a look at the office, if there is one. i've met more than a few lawyers at someplace other than their office and promised the world. i did no business with them fortuneatly. i have done deals directly with the lawyers of the seller, not mine, on a few deals in SD with great results, clean titles, on time, extras (tax stamps etc.) spelled out in advance, no need for my own lawyer, just the money. i dealt with respectable people who i still respect.
i've also given important documents, passport, money, to a complete stranger on a street corner in SD outside of some govt. building in downtown SD, only at the urging of my dominican wife, told to come back tomorrow to the same street corner, and to my surprise!, everything was there with the new stamps, translations, photocopies, receipts, and i never stood in line.......what a country!!!!
a few years back "my" lawyer in NY didn't finish a case as he should have, we won but he didn't end it, and now it may cost me dearly.
as far as punishing people, in this country, for civil fraud, unless we're talking millions and you've got millions to fight with, you won't get blood out of a stone.

And, in addition, if such a person had posed as a lawyer, all the transactions he/she acted upon would be invalid in a court of law!

Is it April already?gre:irate:

AK or Afgan or whatso ever,
what kinda fraud of beeing a lawyer you are talking about?
the thousands of 'Lawyers assistances" who run the streets specially of the capital city day by day and tell ya, you, the foreigner, and the same, to the dominican visitor, that they would be a "Lawyer", and the papers you give them to be legalized finally really get legalized/stamped/proceded, b/c your "street Lawyer Assistant" passed them on to his 'Boss", they got stamped, you got your services.
where's the problem???
bring up the details of your specific case why you asked that question.
cheers
Mike

by the Law they would need to be a Company firstly and of course need to get the propper permits/licenses for the services they offer, and of course to pay as a company Taxes on their Incomes.

for the ones walking the streets of the Capital City to give a hand with renewing some papers/getting a tourlicense/gunpermit etc etc, those are usually affiliated to a licensed Lawyer/office, so they in reality are like a Assistant/Secretary/mensajero, the person in charge is the Lawyer's office they are affiliated to.

in case of so many foreign run ""legal advise websites/assistants"", specially the countless Russians who frequent the Island since a few Years, really filling up Punta Cana lately, I don't believe most or any are affiliated to any Legal Lawyer's office nor have any Kinda legal permit for their activities, and they sure will not pay Taxes on their income neither.
the best way to kick such Alien in the Azz is usually to report them to the Rentas Internas Authorities, nothing worse than to get caught anywhere for Moneylaundering/TaxFrauds etc, specially in a foreign Country.
Mike

Be careful

Afgan said:

Currently a whole bunch of them from some Eastern European country operating like immigration lawyers for their countrymen - both companies and individuals. Without any licenses whatsoeverOf course no taxes paid neither..

Some of them have very officialy and formely looking websites openly offering immigration lawyer`s services - residence, passports, change of name, RE transactions, etc.

Also commonly offering translation services. That if my memory serves me well also requires a license in this country.

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My question to you is......Why would you want to get involved in reporting these people??......(unless they are somehow directly affecting you)....do you really know who these people are?? ...Who knows who they are paying off??....(maybe?).....what if it got back to these people that you were the one who exposed them??..........(and cost them a lot of money)....you know where I'm going with this.......I would tread lightly, and remember where you are.......nothing wrong with doing the right thing.....but don't do it for the wrong reason.....I wish you well.....

Hillbilly, I will try to answer your question, but remember I'm not a criminal lawyer, so my answer is based on what I remember learning in law school more than 30 years ago.

There is no "c?mulo de penas" under Dominican criminal law. When an accused commits the same crime several times, the maximum sentence he or she can get is the maximum for the crime.