I refer to the media reports on the rising number of fraud cases reported against lawyers and the related financial and non-financial fallout.

While we must be careful not to paint a whole profession bad, like any other profession, there will be bad apples and those who forget their oath of office. One must also look carefully as lawyers have a lot of say in our daily life.

For example, we need to pay a paltry amount at the registrar's office to get married but to get a divorce we need to spend thousands as our legal and administrative system cannot cope with laymen appearing in court.

Another example is property purchases where although most of the time it is a standard agreement and most of us can do a 'cut and paste' job ourselves, the law requires us to use a solicitor who we have to pay a fixed fee to. Bizarre and unfair.

So we have a situation whereby if I am buying a RM500,000 luxury car, I can take my maid with me to finalise the transaction but if I am buying a RM50,000 house, I need to use a lawyer.

While we are looking at abuses, we must also look at the system that perpetuates a cycle of abuses. Why insist on lawyers when we can do some of the work ourselves? Sometime it is not intentional abuses but merely oversights or just taking advantage of the situation.

Recently, it was highlighted that in the media that the Bar Council had expressed shock over how many non-lawyers are using the Bar Council emblem on their motor vehicles.

Apparently, some lawyers complained that the emblems were there so that lawyers speeding to court would be let off by traffic police. Lawyers, better then anybody else, should know that everyone is equal under the law, whether with an emblem or not.

Is it okay for the police let off lawyers speeding to court? How about the rest of us who are also rushing to our respective appointments, maybe for client presentations and so on? If you don't want to be late and to avoid being stopped for speeding, please leave early from the home or office.

It is totally not acceptable to be complaining about the authorities letting off minor traffic offenders who may be using the Bar Council Emblem under false pretence. What cheek. The emblem does not give rise to any special privileges. Can the Bar Council show which law or act allows lawyers these special privileges?