5 more trainee lawyers cheated in 2020 Bar exams: AGC

SINGAPORE: Five more trainee lawyers cheated in the 2020 qualifying exams and the Attorney-General is currently considering their applications to the Bar, an Attorney-General's Chambers (AGC) spokesperson said on Tuesday (Apr 19).

This is on top of the six trainee lawyers whose Bar applications were adjourned last week. The Attorney-General objected to those applications as they had cheated in the 2020 exams.

That was the first time the Attorney-General had objected to Bar applications because the candidates cheated in exams, the AGC spokesperson told CNA.

The six who were dealt with last week cheated during the 2020 Part B exams that law graduates must pass before they can enter the legal profession.

Five of the applicants shared answers for six of the papers over WhatsApp, while the last one colluded with another candidate to cheat in three of the papers.

Five of them had their Bar applications delayed for six months, while the last one was given a year's delay.

This was because she had denied wrongdoing and protested her innocence, explained the High Court judge who heard their Bar applications, Justice Choo Han Teck.

Justice Choo also redacted the names of the six and sealed the case file "in the hope that they will not be prejudiced in the long run".

On Tuesday, the AGC spokesperson said: "The Attorney-General takes the view that, in all cases where applicants had cheated on the bar examinations, such applicants would not be fit and proper persons to be admitted as Advocates and Solicitors of the Supreme Court of Singapore at this point in time."

This was because "their misconduct showed that they did not embody the key qualities of honesty and integrity that every lawyer must possess".

At the end of the adjournments, the applications will be required to file an affidavit showing why they are "fit and proper persons" to be admitted to the Bar, added the AGC spokesperson.