Lawyers from across Morocco staged an open-ended sit-in outside Parliament in Rabat on Monday as lawmakers prepared to hold a final vote on Bill No. 66.23 regulating the legal profession, warning they will boycott the law, expand their nationwide strike and seek international intervention if it is adopted without further changes.
“If this bill is adopted in its current form, there will be strong escalation measures,” Chouaib Lamsahle, a lawyer and member of the Association of Moroccan Bar Associations, told Hespress English.
He said lawyers would continue their nationwide suspension of judicial and legal services inside and outside courts, including legal aid provided to citizens unable to afford representation.
“The Association has already announced that if this law is published, it will not consider itself concerned by it. Lawyers will not submit to this law and will not apply it,” Lamsahle said.
Beyond the work stoppage, he said the legal profession plans to internationalize the dispute by filing complaints with international bodies, including the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers, while continuing advocacy efforts inside and outside Morocco.
Lamsahle said the strike is already disrupting every category of litigation, including criminal, civil, commercial, labor, family and real estate cases.
“All hearings without exception are affected,” he said, warning that people placed in police custody are among those bearing the greatest consequences because they may not have a lawyer present during questioning before prosecutors.
While courts have so far postponed hearings because of the strike, he warned that judges could eventually begin deciding cases despite lawyers’ absence.
At the same time, many new lawsuits are not even reaching the courts because lawyers have stopped filing petitions and legal submissions.
“Citizens’ judicial interests are completely stalled,” he said, saying that the disruption stems from what he described as the government’s decision to abandon an earlier compromise reached with representatives of the legal profession.
Lamsahle estimated that tens of thousands of cases have already been affected in Casablanca alone, while nationwide the number of delayed files could exceed one million if the standoff continues.”
The protest comes days after the House of Representatives’ Justice, Legislation, Human Rights and Freedoms Committee approved the bill at a second reading, retaining several of its most disputed provisions before sending it to the full chamber for a final vote.
The committee reviewed more than 200 amendments approved by the House of Councillors but kept key articles largely unchanged, including maintaining the maximum age for entering the profession at 45.
Bill 66.23, first approved by the government earlier this year before passing its initial reading in the House of Representatives, has triggered months of protests and strikes by lawyers, who say it undermines the independence of the profession and expands state oversight of bar associations.
The Justice Ministry says the reform is designed to modernize the legal profession, strengthen governance and improve transparency.
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