The Superior Administrative Court (TSA) accepted an appeal for protection filed by the lawyers Lilia Fernandez Leon, Mariel Leon Lebron and Joel del Rosario Alburquerque and annulled a resolution of the Board of Directors of the Bar Association of the Dominican Republic (CARD) that reactivated disciplinary processes against him, considering that what was done compromised guarantees of the due process and effective judicial protection.
The sentence was issued on January 13 by the TSA First Roomwhich also imposed a astreinte (coercive fine) of 5,000 pesos to ensure compliance with what was ordered.
Origin of the case
The case has its origin in an intense legal dispute arising from the divorce process between Maria Amelia Hazoury Delgado and the businessman Juan Rafael Llaneza Gil.
In February 2025, a civil ordinance declared them “reckless litigants” for holding banking oppositions against companies linked to Llaneza. Based on that judicial sanction – which was later revoked by the Court of Appeal— CARD initiated a disciplinary process that has been described as an “open challenge” to judicial authority.
The lawyers currently favored, belonging to the firm Leon & Rafulhave denounced that the CARD has been used as an “instrument of retaliation” by their client’s counterparty.
Faced with what they defined as irregularities of a constitutional nature, the lawyers filed for protection in 2025. That first action culminated in a ruling that annulled the seizure of the Disciplinary Court and annulled the hearing scheduled for August 6, 2025, concluding that due process had been violated.
Subsequently, the National Board of Directors of CARD issued the Resolution 03-2025-JDdated October 11, 2025, with which it once again empowered the Disciplinary Court and reinitiated disciplinary actions.
In response, the jurists filed a new appeal for protection on November 27, 2025, questioning the legality of that resolution and its effects.
Reasons of the court
In its analysis, the TSA recalled that amparo is a quick constitutional mechanism to protect fundamental rights when they are threatened or violated, and that effective judicial protection requires that decisions be adopted respecting the guarantees of due process.
The First Chamber assessed that the case was directly related to the previous protection that had annulled the power of attorney of the Disciplinary Court, so it focused the debate on determining whether the resolution of the CARD Board of Directors could sustain disciplinary actions again in a context already judicially challenged.
When deciding the merits, the court accepted the action and ordered that the Resolution 03-2025-JD. In addition, it established an astreinte as a coercive measure to guarantee that what was ordered is executed in the terms established by the sentence.
Through a press release, Leon Lebron considered that with this decision, “administrative justice sends a strong message to the board of the Bar Association about the impossibility of using its disciplinary mechanisms to persecute legal professionals in the framework of private litigation.”
