Legal Question in Civil Litigation in Panama

Re: Idenity a panama lawyer

Panamanian licensed attorneys (even the ones that passed away) are listed at http://www.organojudicial.gob.pa/IDONEIDAD/idoneo.htm

Questions on the Law School attended or whether it would be O.K. if you contact Panamanian authorities to verify his/her references, may be useful. Registration with the Panamanian Bar Association (www.cnapanama.com) is not mandatory and it is of very little use. However, they run the Court of Honor, an ethics board where disbar actions are taken, and other sanctions are imposed to infringing attorneys.

But, if you really want to know if this person is real and you don't mind sending me his/her details, I can check that for you. My email address is [email protected].

Re: Idenity a panama lawyer

Hello: Real, licensed attorneys are prohibited from contacting clients. It's called "soliciting" and it is expressly prohibited by every Bar association of which I am aware.

All licensed attorneys wait for contact from clients, and don't go chasing after clients.

Licensing is provided by the state. If you are in Washington you can go to www.wsba.org and look for information on the attorneys who are licensed to practice in this state. If you are in another state, go to that state's bar association website.

It would be unusual for there to be a legitimate reason for an attorney from Panama to be contacting you. If it concerns a relative of yours who lives there, maybe it is legitimate, but if this attorney is attemting to convince you to invest in something, it's quite possibly just a scam. Panama likely has a consulate here; you can certainly contact them to verify the attorney's bona fides.

But my first impression is that there is no legitimate reason for this contact, so you probably don't want to be providing this person with your bank account numbers.

Powell