Chambers of Aminahtul Mardiah

On the court record

Chambers of Aminahtul Mardiah is a Malaysian firm whose reported matters before the High Court (Mahkamah Tinggi) and the Court of Appeal (Mahkamah Rayuan) combine serious criminal defence with commercial and civil-procedure litigation. On the criminal side the firm has appeared in prosecutions under section 26B(d) of the Anti-Trafficking in Persons and Anti-Smuggling of Migrants Act 2007 (Akta Anti Pemerdagangan Orang dan Anti Penyeludupan Migran 2007, Act 670) read with section 34 of the Penal Code, matters that engaged the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act 2012 (SOSMA) and the Witness Protection Act 2009, where the defence advanced was that the operation in question was in fact a lawful Special Branch intelligence operation rather than migrant-smuggling activity.

The firm's civil practice is centred on the machinery of litigation. It has argued applications to amend a statement of claim, where the court set out the principles governing amendment, whether the application was made bona fide and whether any prejudice to the opposing party could be compensated by costs, and it has appeared in an assessment of damages tied to an injunction and the undertaking as to damages, testing whether a specific order for assessment was required and whether Order 37 of the Rules of Court 2012 had been complied with. On the commercial side it has litigated an arbitration matter where court proceedings were commenced despite an arbitration agreement, raising whether the dispute should be referred to arbitration and whether the court retained jurisdiction to grant interim relief in support, consistent with the principle of minimal curial intervention. The firm has also appeared in an amendment appeal in which the High Court allowed a change to a statement of claim that the Sessions Court had refused, applying the established principles on whether the application was made bona fide and whether any prejudice to the other side could be met by an order for costs. The reported profile is that of a practice that pairs the defence of grave security and trafficking charges with disciplined civil and arbitration procedure.