Nicaragua Is Erasing Lawyers From Its Official Register. The Court Won’t Say Why
Politics
Key Facts
—The claim. A judicial source says about 2,000 lawyers and notaries have been deleted from the Supreme Court’s register.
—The consequence. Anyone absent from that register cannot file court documents, represent clients or execute notarial deeds.
—The evidence. Named lawyers say they searched the public database and found themselves gone, with no notice and no disciplinary process.
—The silence. Neither the Supreme Court nor Ortega’s government has said anything about it.
—The contrast. In 2023 the same court suspended seven lawyers by written circular, naming the infractions and fixing the terms.
—The commerce. Nicaraguan notaries authenticate property transfers, mortgages and company formations.
Nicaragua lawyers who went to file documents this week say they were told they no longer appear in the Supreme Court’s database, and nobody in authority has explained why.
The country’s highest court keeps a public directory of everyone licensed to practise law and to act as a notary. Vanish from it and you cannot file a document, appear for a client, or draw up a deed.
Several lawyers say that is exactly what has happened to them. A source inside the judicial system puts the number at around two thousand.
What is known about the missing Nicaragua lawyers
Start with what can be checked. Martha Patricia Molina, a lawyer, wrote publicly on Thursday that the court had removed her from the register of lawyers and notaries and that she had received no notification and no explanation.
Rudy Siles, an attorney now living outside the country, searched for himself and found he was no longer there. Others in exile report the same.
The two thousand figure is a different kind of claim. As Infobae reports, it comes from an unnamed source within the judiciary, relayed by a journalist, and no outlet has independently counted the names.
The same source says the removals reached some judges and targeted people considered unaligned with the government. That part rests on the same single chain of testimony.
What a disciplinary process normally looks like
Nicaragua’s Supreme Court has suspended lawyers before, and it did so in writing. In late 2023 its judicial-career council suspended seven lawyers and notaries, naming the grave infractions alleged and setting terms of three months to five years.
Circulars were issued. The suspensions had beginnings and ends.
What lawyers describe this week is a silent deletion, discovered at a courthouse counter. Reed Brody, a member of the United Nations group of human rights experts on Nicaragua, told the news agency AFP that erasing lawyers from the register without notice or process closes the last channel of defence a citizen had.
One exiled lawyer, speaking anonymously to the same agency, called it a civil death. Neither the court nor the government has offered any account.
Why this reaches beyond the courtroom
The consequences run past criminal defence. Nicaragua uses a civil-law system, and in such systems a notary is not a witness to signatures but the officer who drafts and authenticates public deeds.
Buying land, registering a mortgage, incorporating a company, transferring shares, granting a power of attorney: each requires a notary in good standing. The register these lawyers say they were removed from is the register that establishes standing.
The opposition group Liberales Nicaragua made the structural point in its statement, arguing the harm falls not only on the lawyers stripped of their profession but on the citizens who need their services. It used the phrase legal certainty.
For a foreign business, that phrase is not rhetoric. Legal certainty is what registering title in a distant country is supposed to purchase.
The register itself is run by an office of the judiciary that records every lawyer and notary in the country, scans their signature and seal, and tracks sanctions, suspensions and reinstatements. Courts consult it to establish who may act.
Lawyers describe a new verification step at the entrance to judicial complexes, applied before documents are accepted. Several arrived to file papers or appear for clients and were told they no longer figure in the register.
The pattern this fits
Ortega and his wife Rosario Murillo govern as co-presidents and have held power for close to two decades. Their government has cancelled the legal status of civic organisations, confiscated property and stripped prominent critics of their nationality.
Lawyers who defended those cases would have needed to be on the register to do it. Whether that has anything to do with the removals they describe is precisely what nobody in office will say.
Have 2,000 Nicaragua lawyers really been struck off?
That number is a claim, not a count. It comes from one unnamed judicial source and has been repeated rather than verified, though individual lawyers have confirmed their own removal by name.
Has the court explained itself?
No. As of Friday neither the Supreme Court nor the government had issued any statement, and the affected lawyers say they received no notice and faced no disciplinary hearing.
What should a foreign investor take from this?
That the pool of notaries who can validly execute a deed in Nicaragua may have narrowed without announcement. Anyone holding property or a company there should confirm that their notary still appears on the court’s register.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many lawyers and notaries are reported to have been removed from Nicaragua's Supreme Court register?
A judicial source estimates that approximately 2,000 lawyers and notaries have been deleted from the Supreme Court's register. Several of the affected lawyers confirmed this by searching the public database themselves and finding their names gone.
What are the practical consequences of being removed from the Supreme Court's register in Nicaragua?
Anyone absent from the register cannot file court documents, represent clients, or execute notarial deeds. This is especially significant because Nicaraguan notaries are responsible for authenticating property transfers, mortgages, and company formations.
How does the current situation differ from how the Supreme Court handled lawyer suspensions in 2023?
In 2023, the Supreme Court suspended seven lawyers through a written circular that named the specific infractions and fixed the terms of suspension. By contrast, the current removals came with no notice, no disciplinary process, and no explanation from either the Supreme Court or the Ortega government.
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