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My Lawyer Wasn't Sincere!
Dear Advisor
I seek advice from your organization. I was retired on medical grounds on
September 27 2002 on recommendation from the University Teaching Hospital (UTH).
When my my former employers in Kitwe received the forms, they informed me
that I will only be paid K1.5 million repatriation allowance which is
against the Collective Agreement.
When an employee retires on medical grounds, or is retired from office
without notice, one is entitled to full benefits. I took the matter to the
Kabwe High Court where I was advised to find a lawyer to represent me. On
August 20 2004 I sued my former employers in the Kabwe Magistrate Court and
I was represented by Mukuka and Company Lawyers. After hearing the case,
Magistrate Kabinga set the judgment for September 24th 2004 but when the day
came, the defendants were not present in court. I contacted my lawyer to
inquire about the defendants's absence but he shouted at me, telling me that
disabled persons are difficult to deal with and that his office was not a
political office. He asked me to see him after two weeks.
I went there after two weeks and he told me that my employers had agreed to
pay me all my benefits. He asked me to go back the following week saying
that because the case was before court, it should finish in the presence of
my self and the defendants.
I went to see the lawyer after two weeks and he told me that my employers
had sent the cheques which he had already deposited in his bank account. He
asked me to see him the following day.
The following day, I went to the bank with the lawyer and he withdrew
K9million and only gave me K8.235, 000 million. He said he would get his
payment from the costs and interest awarded by the court.
I asked him to show me the letter or payment voucher that accompanied the
cheques, but he refused.
Advisor, I am a disabled person I lost my sight due to the paralysis I
suffered for two years. My right leg is also paralyzed including the waist.
I am now using crutches to walk. After receiving the money, I went to Kitwe
to look for the payment voucher. I found it and ut indicated that I was
actually paid K12 million. When I contacted the lawyer about the same, he
got annoyed and used bad words to me. I do not have any relatives here in
Kabwe and I am being looked after by my in laws. According to the Statutory
Instrument on which the court based its judgement, if an employee retires on
medical ground he shall be entitled to one year three months multiplied by
the salary of K305,000 and multiplied by number of years served and that he
shall be retired at the age of 55 years because it is not his wish to leave
employment. I saved with the company for 10 years.
Please advise me on what to do because the above was the calculation I did
with my lawyer before going to court but I do not know why things later
changed. Please advise me in a letter addressed to my house or through your
newsletter. Please help, I am a father of three, two of them are at school,
and my chances of getting employed again are none. Thanking you in advance.
Yours Faithfully
Stanley Mulenga
Kabwe
Dear Mulenga
Lawyer client relationship is purely contractual and therefore if you were
dissatisfied with the discovery and rudeness of your lawyer you were at
liberty to terminate the relationship
When the court awards legal costs to a litigant, the costs are the lawyers.
The lawyer is not supposed to pass on to a client legal cost after they have
been paid by the unsuccessful party. A client is only entitled to out of
court expenses such as transport, food, and accommodation where such arises.
If a successful client paid a deposit to his lawyer on account of legal
costs, that deposit also has to be refunded if the legal costs recovered by
the lawyer from unsuccessful party add up to his taxed bill, where legal
costs. If however the lawyer can not recover all his legal cost from the
unsuccessful party the lawyer will have recourse to his client to top up the
shortfall.
If you where retired on medical grounds the minimum wages and conditions of
employment statutory instrument entitles you to three months pay for each
year served.
The Advisor
Help me Sue Police IG
Dear Advisor
I write to you in order to complain and seek help in a case in which I want
to sue the Inspector General of Zambia Police or the state for unlawful
dismissal from service.
I was employed as a police officer (constable) stationed at Kasempa Police
Station. Whilst at Kasempa I was charged and arrested for taking and driving
away a motor vehicle without authority. The motor vehicle involved was a
police Land Rover. The case was taken to Kasempa Magistrate Court Class 1
and was heard by his lordship magistrate Mulenga, in 1974.
The court found me guilty I was convicted and fined K30,000 or in default
three months imprisonment.
But knowing that the magistrate was biased and that there was no justice in
the way he dealt with my case, I appealed against both convictions and
sentence, since the said offence was committed while I was on duty and in
uniform with no intention to steal the said motor vehicle. I had to appeal
to the High court on the same day of my conviction.
While I was waiting for my case to be heard by the court of appeal, I was
then dismissed from Zambia Police. The action taken could not represent the
Zambia Police Administration on that of the civil service Regulation. In
those days cases of appeal took time to be heard by appeal courts. So I had
to leave Kasempa for Chinsali and started to wait. After so many years of
waiting I tried to ask the senior court clerk at Solwezi Judiciary
Department who in his letter GV 14 dated 15th December 1992 advised me to
write to the Ndola High Court, which I did. I wrote to Ndola High Court
about five letters without receiving any reply. While I was in Ndola in 1995
I went to the High Court and asked in person for my acquittal certificate. I
was referred to Kitwe High Court.
In Kitwe the registrar tried to get my case record but it was not there and
he had to refer me back to Ndola.
I went back there but the women at the registry could not attend to me. They
asked me to produce the cause list number. I tried to explain to them that I
was not in court at the time of acquittal and that my case was to be heard
in absentia but still there was nothing they did.
(i) I have found that my dismissal was unlawful since I was dismissed while
the case was in the appeal chambers.
(ii) The appeal court was supposed to communicate with my employers for my
reinstatement. I find that my legal rights were violated and needs a redress
of my rights.
(iii) I have been brought to a destitute due to the courts action of their
failure to issue me with an acquittal certificate when in fact they had my
particulars with them. These actions against me do not qualify to represent
any human or legal and justice in Zambian rights.
Your help in bringing this case in court will be highly appreciated.
Yours faithfully
Charles Kangwa
Const 12086/69.
Chinsali
Dear Mr Kangwa
You were convicted and appealed in 1974 and you checked on your appeal in
1992 that is after 18 years of waiting. Your waiting or patience is glossily
inordinate.be that as it may you can only be assisted in your matter if you
can produce written proof that you had appealed in 1997 and there was
negligence on the part of someone not to process your appeal. But even then
the time factor is a hurdle you have to first surmount.
The Advisor
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