Título VI. Mandatarios judiciales y abogados

Persons qualified to act before the tribunals who for any reason do not wish to or cannot do so personally, or legal persons that do not wish to appear through their presidents, managers or directors may appear through judicial agents under a mandate, for any act provided they have knowledge of the facts that are the subject of the proceedings. In the case of companies incorporated abroad, their representatives who have judicial powers shall substitute them in an Attorney to appear at trial if he does not have that profession.

The mandate must be conferred in a public deed for matters conducted in written form, and its certified copy shall be registered in the General Archive of Protocols of the Presidency of the Judicial Branch and in such registries as may be applicable pursuant to the Law.

Judicial agents under a mandate, by the sole fact of their appointment, shall have sufficient powers to carry out all kinds of procedural acts. They need specially conferred powers for:

a)To render confession and party declaration.

b)To recognize and disavow relatives.

c)To recognize signatures.

d)To submit matters to the decision of arbitrators, to appoint them or propose them.

e)To report crimes and to accuse criminally.

f)To initiate or accept separation or divorce, to attend reconciliation meetings and to resolve what is most favorable to their principal; and to intervene in a trial for nullity of marriage.

g)To prorogate jurisdiction.

h)To acquiesce and to withdraw from the trial, from the petitions, remedies, incidents, defenses and recusals, as well as to waive them.

i)To enter into settlements and agreements in relation to litigation.

j)To remit obligations and to grant deferrals and partial remissions.

k)To request or accept adjudications of property in payment.

l)To grant pardon in private crimes.

m)To approve liquidations and accounts.

n)To substitute the mandate in whole or in part, reserving or not its exercise, and to grant the special mandates for which they are empowered.

ñ)The other cases established in other laws.

The obligations of judicial agents under a mandate are:

a)To prove their representation.

b)Not to abandon the matter in which they have acted while they have not been replaced in its handling.

c)To pay the necessary expenses corresponding to them for the course of the matter.

d)To comply with the other obligations of agents under a mandate in general and those imposed on them by other laws and the respective regulations.

Agents under a mandate are subject to the prohibitions of lawyers and incur the same liability as they do.

The following may not be judicial agents under a mandate:

a)Those who cannot themselves act in judicial matters.

b)Those who have a pending order of imprisonment or conviction for any crime, for the time fixed in the judgment.

c)Those who are not lawyers, except when it concerns representation of the spouse, of their cohabitant whose de facto union is registered in the respective civil register, and of their relatives within the degrees provided by law, or when the mandate is granted to be exercised before the minor Trial Courts and only in matters not exceeding five hundred (Q.500.00) quetzales or before judges or tribunals in whose jurisdiction no more than three lawyers practice.

d)Magistrates, judges, public officials and employees of the Judicial Branch and the interns and meritorious personnel of the tribunals.

e)Remunerated public officials and employees of the Executive Branch, with the exception of those who engage in teaching or hold any position that is not full-time.

The revocation of a mandate shall have no effect in a matter in which the mandatary is acting, while the mandator does not state in legal form to the judge that he appears in the matter and that he designates a house in the town where the tribunal has its seat for receiving notifications or while another person does not prove in the proceedings that he has substituted the mandatary and designates the residence to which this article refers.

If the mandatary whose mandate has been revoked becomes disqualified, the immediate presentation of the substitute shall be ordered, with warning that judicial defense counsel will be appointed if it is not effected.

The provisions of this chapter are applicable to any other representatives of the parties.

To practice the profession of lawyer, the corresponding degree is required; being an active member of the bar; being enrolled in the Register of Lawyers kept at the Supreme Court of Justice; being in enjoyment of citizen rights; and having no suspension of any kind in effect. No judicial, administrative or other authority may limit the practice of the profession of lawyer, except where founded in law.

Complaints, petitions and memorials filed before the tribunals of justice shall be supported by the signature and seal of a bar-registered attorney, and without such requirement no matter shall be allowed to proceed. The attorney is liable for the substance and form of the writings authorized with his signature. The intervention of an attorney is not necessary in oral matters heard by the minor Trial Courts, in proceedings of the Public Prosecutor's Office when the office is not held by a professional; and in the other cases provided for by other laws.

The tribunals and judges shall leave lawyers in the just liberty they must have to uphold in writing and orally the rights of their clients. Lawyers must proceed in accordance with the laws and with due respect to the tribunals and authorities; they shall be summoned by the latter with the corresponding decorum and they shall not be interrupted nor disconcerted when they speak in court, nor shall the free performance of their high office be restricted directly or indirectly, and the authorities, public officials and employees of the public administration of any rank shall afford them the same treatment. The tribunals shall afford lawyers the respectful treatment inherent to their office.

The following may not act as lawyers:

a)Persons who are incapacitated.

b)Those who are subject to an order of imprisonment or have a pending sentence for the time fixed in the respective judgment, and those who, falling within the foregoing cases, enjoy liberty pursuant to the powers vested in the judge to grant it.

c)Those who cannot be judicial agents under a mandate, except where they act in their own matter, in the matter of their spouse, of their cohabitant whose de facto union is registered in the respective civil register, or of their minor children.

d)Those who have been declared unfit in accordance with the Law.

e)Public officials and employees of the Executive and Legislative branches; with the exception of those who engage in teaching or hold any position that is not full-time. Deputies to the Congress of the Republic are not included in this prohibition.

f)Full-time public officials and public employees who have been appointed precisely to act as lawyers may only do so for the agency in which they render their services.

The obligations of attorneys are:

a)To maintain procedural loyalty to the parties and to the tribunal. To conduct themselves in their public and professional conduct with decency, honorability and decorum. Their private life must be compatible with such qualifications.

b)To plead in writing or orally, without departing from the truth of the facts, nor contravening legal provisions.

c)To defend free of charge those declared poor and defendants who do not appoint defense counsel. The judges shall take care to distribute equitably, among the attorneys of their jurisdiction, the defense of the poor, and have authority to impose on them fines of five (Q. 5.00) to twenty-five (Q. 25.00) quetzales, when without just cause they fail to fulfill their duty.

It is prohibited for lawyers:

a)To act in trials in which the judge would have to excuse himself or could be recused because of the professional's intervention.

b)To invoke fictitious or truncated laws.

c)To reveal their client's secret.

d)To abandon, without just cause, matters they have begun to defend.

e)To interrupt the speech or statement of the opposing party or their lawyer.

f)To demand from their client fees greater than those agreed upon or those set by the fee schedules.

g)To defend one party after having begun the defense of the other in the same matter.

h)To act as guarantors or provide a guarantee in any kind of proceedings except in their own cause, that of their spouse, or that of their relatives within the degree established by law.

i)To fail to fulfill the other obligations prescribed by laws and regulations.

The tribunals are obligated to proceed in accordance with this Law, in cases of violation of this article.

Attorneys are liable for the damage and losses suffered by their clients due to their proven ignorance, fault, intent, carelessness, negligence or bad faith.

For the filing of frivolous or impertinent remedies clearly tending to obstruct the proceedings, and for the submission of insulting pleadings or pleadings with evident malice, the attorney shall be sanctioned, the first two times with a fine of two hundred to one thousand quetzales and the third time with removal from the direction and representation of the matter, without prejudice to other sanctions that the Colegio de Abogados y Notarios may impose, in the interest of the proper discipline and prestige of the profession.

Against the decision imposing fines or removal, an appeal lies, but in the case of collegiate tribunals, only reconsideration lies, in all cases guaranteeing to the person presumed liable the right of defense and due process. Such remedy shall not interrupt the course of the pending matter. This issue shall be processed as an interlocutory matter in a separate record.

All disqualifications shall be decreed by the tribunal hearing the matter, with notice thereof given to the Supreme Court of Justice; the latter shall in turn communicate it to the other tribunals and to the Bar Association, ordering that the corresponding entry be made in the Register of Lawyers and that it be published in the Official Gazette and in the Gazette of the Tribunals.