Morning Briefing: Want to appear in court? Better get to the gym

Lawyers in India could be required to take fitness tests before they are allowed to appear in court. The country’s Supreme Court says that those who are taking part in criminal trials should prove their mental and physical fitness to ensure that litigants are not disadvantaged. The Times of India reports that the issue has been raised following a rape case in which the accused sought to recall witnesses because he said his lawyer was incompetent.
While competence on a professional level is expected, the court suggests that rules may need to be amended “to examine the continued fitness of an advocate to conduct a criminal trial on account of advanced age or other mental or physical infirmity, to avoid grievance that an advocate who conducted trial was unfit or incompetent.”
 
Lawyer plans to bring back name from Enron scandal
A name which was synonymous with the Enron scandal at the turn of the century could be revived if a French lawyer’s plan comes to fruition. The accountancy firm Arthur Andersen was found guilty of destroying documents relating to an audit it carried out on the firm but the conviction was overturned. Tainted by the scandal in which the oil giant Enron was found to have lied about profits, the Andersen business folded. The name was later bought by some of its original partners and is now operating as Andersen Tax in the US. However lawyer Veronique Martinez wants to revive the name in Europe in 2016, having been one of the original firm’s lawyers. She says that the values of the Andersen business would be behind the firm and that it would not repeat mistakes of the past.
 
BB King’s tour manager sues late singer’s daughters
The former tour manager of the blues legend BB King has filed a defamation lawsuit against two of the late singer’s daughters. The Review Journal reports that Myron N. Johnson says he has been accused by the women of "stealing from Mr. King, neglecting Mr. King, poisoning Mr. King, and murdering Mr. King." The singer died in May in hospice care and Johnson and another aide were accused of hastening his death but the coroner ruled that Kind died of natural causes. Johnson said that in the last decade of King’s life he was asked by the singer to “never leave his side”.