CORONAVIRUS | The Prime Minister’s Department’s Legal Affairs Division has come up with standard operating procedures (SOPs) on the operation of legal firms during the movement control order (MCO) period.
A spokesperson from the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department in charge of legal affairs said the guidelines were made to facilitate legal advice access by industries that received an exemption from the International Trade and Industry Ministry (Miti) to operate during the MCO.
According to a copy of the guidelines, the only legal firms allowed to operate are those involving conveyancing and corporate matters linked to the industries that are allowed by Miti to operate during MCO.
The guidelines emphasised that legal firms involved in litigation and others are not the legal services mentioned in the SOP.
It stated that the legal services allowed to operate during MCO can only do so from 10am to 4pm on two days of the week, namely Tuesday and Thursday. These firms must be within the green zone (of the MCO) whereby they could then offer face-to-face service with clients who are also from the same zone; and that such clients are not allowed to cross a zone if they were from a non-green zone.
In regards to staff presence on the firms’ premises, the SOP stated that for legal firms with 21 staff and above, only 20 percent of staff are allowed on the premises; for firms with 10 to 20 staff, only 30 percent; and for firms with less than 10 staff, only three people are permitted.
The legal firms are directed to not only record the attendance of staff by making them sign their attendance and write their names, time entering premises and sign out when leaving, among others, but this requirement also applies to clients coming to the firms. The attendance records are directed to be kept for at least six months.
“Permission to operate does not include meetings with clients, and consultation with clients are to be only for pressing matters, and limited to one client at a time,” the guidelines said.
It also encouraged legal firms to utilise the service of despatch riders to obtain clients’ signatures or written authorisation for a document, among others.
The guidelines also directed that these legal firms should screen and keep daily records of the body temperature of staff; provide hand sanitisers for staff and ensure they wear facemasks at all times; practice social distancing, and conduct sanitisation of premises twice on each day it is operating, among other measures.
It also stated that employees who are found to have a high temperature are not allowed on the premises and it is the responsibility of the firms to refer the staff for treatment at their panel clinics or health clinics; and if there are staff discovered to be Covid-19 positive, the firms must bear the medical and other related costs.
On April 10, Miti announced that some industries would be allowed to apply to recommence operations during the MCO. Among them are legal services. - Mkini
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