his note shows how the government commissioner, Mr. Pierre Wilner DORMEVIL, confuses his role as representative of the executive branch in the judiciary, responsible for implementing the government’s criminal policy, with that of a bar association president.

Government commissioners and their deputies ensure the enforcement of laws and judgments.

A lawyer is a professional member of a bar association, and the bar association is the supreme authority of its order.

Every citizen summoned to appear before the judicial authority is free to choose their lawyer; a government commissioner may in no case restrict this right or impose another choice on the accused.

The decree of March 29, 1979, revising the law of May 6, 1932, and the decree of January 1946 concerning the practice of law, Article 52 stipulates that lawyers plead before the courts with complete freedom and independence, respecting rights and conventions. By privilege, before administrative bodies or the judicial police, when assisting or representing a person, they enjoy all the guarantees necessary for the defense of the rights they exercise.

Article 53 stipulates that no coercion, except as provided by law, may be exerted upon him in the exercise of his profession, particularly in the performance of his official duties. Any violation of this provision will render the perpetrator personally liable and subject to legal proceedings.

Only the disciplinary board to which the lawyer is attached can impose sanctions against him in the exercise of his duties. Neither government commissioners nor judges have this prerogative. The action proposed by the government commissioner of Les Cayes, Pierre Wilner Dormevil, is an example of overzealousness.