The Office of the Chief Registrar has 583 pending cases to deal with regarding complaints against legal practitioners in Fiji.

The Chief Registrar Ana Rokomokoti has confirmed that in May 2009, her office inherited 350 unresolved cases from the Fiji Law Society and some of these complaints date back to the 1990's.

Rokomokoti revealed that out of the 583 legal practitioners in Fiji, 136 have one or more pending complaints against them and by the last day of December 2009 the Legal Practitioners Unit had 411 complaints registered against legal practitioners pending action.

She also revealed that as at June 16th, 2010 the Unit received an additional 180 complaints with approximately 10 complaints against lawyers being received every week.

The Chief registrar said the challenge is to clear the backlog and currently there are 65 pending cases before the Independent Legal Services Commission.

Rokomokoti said a number of complaints are being processed the mediation and 4 cases have been dismissed and certain other complaints are also being considered for dismissal.

She said the workload on the Legal Practitioners Unit is overwhelming and public expectations are high.

However, Rokomokoti said through her office, the Unit remained committed to adhering to its obligations as set out in the Legal Practitioners decree in the processing of complaints against legal practitioners with fairness and independence.

In recent weeks, the Legal Services Commission has found lawyers guilty of professional misconduct and imposed fines.

Commissioner John Connors has also raised concerns in his rulings in the delays which were caused by the Fiji Law Society in dealing with complaints against lawyers which he said should have been dealt with urgently.