Section 22 Legal Practitioners Act

Section 22 of Legal Practitioners Act 1975 is about Offences. It is under ‘General.‘ of the sections of the Act. It provides as follows:

1. Subject to the provisions of this section, if any person other than a legal practitioner-

a. practises, or holds himself out to practise, as a legal practitioner; or
b. takes or uses the title of legal practitioner; or

c. wilfully takes or uses any name, title, addition or description falsely implying, or otherwise pretends, that he is a legal practitioner or is qualified or recognised by law to act as a legal practitioner; or

d. prepares for or in expectation of reward any instrument relating to immovable property, or relating to or with a view to the grant of probate or letters of administration, or relating to or with a view to proceedings in any court of record in Nigeria,
he is guilty of an offence and liable, in the case of an offence under paragraph (a) of this subsection or a second or subsequent offence under paragraph (d) of this subsection, to a fine of an amount not exceeding N200 or imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years or both such fine and imprisonment, and in any other case to a fine of an amount not exceeding N100.

2. In subsection (1) of this section “instrument”, in relation to immovable property, means any document which confers, transfers, limits, charges or extinguishes any interest in the property, or which purports, so to do, and “immovable property”. includes unextracted minerals.

3. Nothing in subsection (1) of this section shall prevent a person from being dealt with for contempt of court, but no proceedings for an offence under this section shall be brought or continued against a person in respect of any act if he has been dealt with for contempt of court in respect of that act.

4. Nothing in paragraph (d) of subsection (1) of this section shall be construed as making it an offence for any person to prepare an instrument-

a. in the course or his activities as a pupil of a legal practitioner or of his employment as a clerk or servant of a legal practitioner;
b. relating only to property in which he has or claims an interest (including an interest as a personal representative or as a person entitled to any part of the estate of a deceased person);

c. relating only to proceedings to which he is a party, 6; prepared with a view to proceedings to which he may be a party; d for the purpose only of recording information or expert opinion intended for use in, or with a view to, any proceedings; e which is, or is intended to be, a will or other testamentary instrument; f of such a class or description as the Attorney-General may by order determine

5. Where an offence under this Act which has been committed by a body corporate is proved to have been committed with the consent or connivance of, or to be attributable to any neglect on the part of, any director, manager, secretary or other similar officer of the body corporate, or any person purporting to act in any such capacity, he, as well as the body corporate, shall be deemed to be guilty of that offence and shall be liable to be proceeded against and punished accordingly.

6. No proceedings for an offence under this section shall be begun after the expiration of the period of three years beginning with the date of the offence.

7. It is hereby declared that any agreement to transfer, either directly or indirectly, any money or thing in consideration of any act which constitutes an offence under this section is void; and any money or thing so transferred, or the value of the thing, shall be recoverable by the transferor from the transferee or from any other person by whom the offence was committed, whether or not any proceedings have been brought in respect of the offence or the time for bringing such proceedings has expired.

[/membership]