Ow Yit??

No, this post is not a continuation of the Chinese translation incident of my previous post. :)

Handling commercial matters as an SAR, I did have some problem in the beginning. All the issues, be it regarding to the law or the facts, were new to me. The bundles of authorities were very extensive. The contracts can go up to "berpuluh-puluh" bundles. Although not all of the clauses are necessary but to strengthen their cases, such documents needed to be produced in court, authenticated by a commissioner of oath. So you can imagine the cost of bringing a simple suit in court…

Anyhow, for interlocutory applications, the counsels who manage to convince the SAR would just die to hear the SAR say, “Order In Terms” (OIT). This means that the SAR agrees with you and you have successfully proven your case to win the application you requested. It is also known as “Perintah Seperti DiPohon (PSP). “Application dismissed” is what your opponent would love to hear instead.

Having that in mind, I once had a chambering student (after ‘reading’ law at a local law school and before you be an advocate and solicitor in Malaysia, you need to do ‘chambering’ or pupilage for nine months) submitting for (if I remember correctly) a judgment in default application. A judgment in default is an automatic right (should you have all the papers in order), if the Defendant failed to enter appearance after 14 days upon receipt of the Writ of Summon. She was reading a script that was prepared for her by someone else. At the end of her speech, this was what she had to say:

“Tuan, I pray for Ow Yit”

“For what??”

“Ow Yit Tuan”

“Do you mean O . I . T? Order in terms??”

“uh oh.. *face turning red*fidgeting left and right* Yes Tuan,”

Oh dear oh dear oh dear…

I was told by a senior civil magistrate that he had someone requesting for “pessep” in open court before. “Pessep” probably came from reading PSP as a word and not an abbreviation. The best part was that the Magistrate was cool enough to continue, “ ‘Pessep’ granted!”…

“Tuan, may I request for a humble blog adjournment”

“Ow YIT!