Lim Tean fails to get nod for Court of Appeal hearing, ordered to start jail term on July 20

Source: Straits Times
Article Date: 08 Jul 2026
Author: Selina Lum

Lim Tean was sentenced to six weeks’ jail and a fine of $1,000 by a district judge in February 2025 for practising law without a valid certificate.

Lawyer and opposition politician Lim Tean has been ordered by the Court of Appeal to surrender on July 20 to begin his jail term for practising law without a valid certificate.

On 32 occasions during a two-month period, from April 1, 2021, to June 9, 2021, Lim attended court hearings and submitted many documents to court while not having a valid practising certificate in force.

He was convicted in July 2024 of three charges under the Legal Profession Act for practising law without a valid certificate, and was sentenced to six weeks’ jail and a fine of $1,000 by a district judge in February 2025.

He appealed to the High Court against his conviction and sentence, while the prosecution appealed for a stiffer sentence of between five and eight months’ jail.

On Feb 23, the High Court judge allowed the prosecution’s appeal and enhanced Lim’s jail term to three months and a week.

Lim was then ordered to surrender at the State Courts on April 24, but his lawyer said he was considering taking the case to the Court of Appeal.

Lim later filed an application seeking permission to refer four questions of law, regarding his case, to the Court of Appeal, which is the highest court in the land.

On July 6, this application was refused by its panel of three judges comprising Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon, Justice Woo Bih Li and Justice See Kee Oon.

They said the questions framed by Lim were not questions of law of public interest, and thus did not meet the necessary conditions before permission is granted.

Also, the determination of most of the questions would not have affected the outcome of Lim’s case, the court added.

In Singapore’s criminal justice system, there is only one tier of appeal.

However, if a question of law of public interest arises out of an appeal to the High Court, the case can be referred to the Court of Appeal to answer the question.

The apex court decides whether the question is one of sufficient public interest to be worth answering.

Lawyers in Singapore must apply for their practising certificate every practice year, which runs from April 1 to March 31 of the following year.

Lim failed to apply for a practising certificate by March 31, 2021, because he had trouble obtaining his professional indemnity insurance, a prerequisite for applying for his practising certificate.

The questions he posed largely focus on the sentencing framework that the High Court judge had applied in increasing his jail term in February 2026.

This framework was laid down in a separate High Court case by a panel of three judges in August 2025, after Lim was first sentenced by the district judge in February 2025.

It related to the approach that judges should adopt when sentencing offenders – such as Lim – who are convicted of a charge that consolidates multiple instances of the same offence.

Lim contended that the High Court judge in his case should not have applied this framework because it was laid down after he was first sentenced.

But the Court of Appeal said it was settled law that judicial pronouncements are by default retroactive in nature, and the judge’s application of the framework was uncontroversial.

Lim is the founder of opposition party Peoples Voice (PV) and a co-founder of the People’s Alliance for Reform, an alliance which includes PV.