Supreme Court disbars lawyer who faked CA decision

The Supreme Court (SC) has disbarred a lawyer who allegedly drafted a fake decision of the Court of Appeals (CA).

The High Court also ordered that Marie Frances E. Ramon's name be immediately stricken off the Roll of Attorneys "without prejudice to the civil or criminal cases pending and/or to be filed against her," SC Public Information Office chief Brian Hosaka said Tuesday.

The Court found that Ramon "defrauded her clients by drafting a fake, spurious and sham decision regarding the purported acquittal" of one Tirso Fajardo, the cousin of a client, of drug-related charges and used the names of three CA justices to "accomplish her ill-motives."

The case against Fajardo was actually raffled to a different associate justice, the SC said.

The complainants, CA justices Fernanda Lampas-Peralta and Stephen Cruz and SC justice Ramon Paul Hernando, who was formerly with the CA, alleged that Ramon claimed she could influence CA justices to secure the acquittal of a person accused of a crime and that she defrauded the relatives of an accused to earn "a large amount of money."

Ramon was found to have violated the Lawyer's Oath and several canons of the Code of Professional Responsibility and committed grave misconduct.

"The Court held that Atty. Ramon has tarnished the image of the legal profession and has lessened the public faith in the judiciary," the SC PIO said in a media briefer. "Hence, the ultimate penalty of disbarment must be imposed upon her." — MDM, GMA News