Our earlier Circular No: 23/2022 on the above matter refers. Please be informed that on 21st June 2022 the Johore Bar Committee (JBC) received a letter from Pejabat Tanah dan Galian Johor (PTG) stating that Enclosure B11 in the New Tatacara will be made applicable to law firms as well with effect from 1st July 2022. This is despite the objection that the Committee had raised on the application of Enclosure B11 (in particular the contents of “Surat Akuan” therein) during the meeting on 30th May 2022 with PTG on this issue.
On the same day and upon receipt of the PTG letter, the JBC had written to PTG reiterating our objection and re-stating our grounds thereof, amongst others, that lawyers or law firms cannot reasonably be asked to vouch for genuineness or accept responsibility over documents that were not prepared by them; that it is not feasible and beyond lawyers duty to provide any form of guarantee/undertaking to PTG that all the documents presented are genuine and not a product of fraud or forgery especially when the documents had not originated or made by the lawyer or law firm concerned; and that the giving of such wide unconditional guarantee or undertaking is beyond the scope of lawyers’ legal responsibility when presenting documents to PTG. The Committee is also concerned that such guarantee/undertaking could potentially be in breach of the recent Bar Council Ruling 14.28 (see Bar Council Circular 156/2022 dated 3.6.2022 here) and could cause serious prejudice to members in the event of any claims arising from the said guarantee/undertaking given to PTG . Enclosure B11 (and the “Akuan” therein) as such could have serious legal implications to lawyers. Enclosure B11 is attached here for members’s perusal and attention.
The concerns were conveyed to PTG and the Committee had asked PTG to reconsider their decision to apply Enclosure B11 to lawyers/law firms. The Committee is awaiting the response from PTG on the matter. The Committee is also exploring other alternatives in order to resolve this issue as soon as possible and will update members in due course. In the meanwhile, members are urged to exercise caution when it comes to requests for such guarantee/undertaking.
Thank you.
NORHAYATI MOHAMED
CHAIRPERSON
CONVEYANCING SUB-COMMITTEE