The Court of Appeal in different cases including the case of Lim Han Yun and Another v. Lucy Theseas Kristensen, Civil Appeal No. 219 of 2019 (unreported) developed a principle regarding the obligation of a party to a case to follow up on their case even though they have engaged an advocate to handle the case.
A party to a case who engages the services of an advocate has a duty to closely follow up the progress and status of his/her case from time to time.
When the case has an undesirable outcome whether dismissal of the case or strike out of the case. The party to the case, to whom the undesirable outcome has a negative impact cannot later be helped when complaining that he/she did not know, and was not informed by his/her advocate of the progress and status of the case. As it is the obligation of the person to follow up on his/her case with the advocate. After all, the case belongs to the party of the case and not the advocate.
Despite the duty imposed on an advocate towards their clients, the same does not exonerate a party to the suit from making reasonable follow-ups to their advocates to know the case updates. However, advocates should not take this for granted and stop sending updates to their clients in respect of the case as there are penalties to that effect as per the Advocates (Professional Conduct and Etiquette) Regulations, GN. No. 118 of 2018.
