The Bar Association is contextually flawed

Nov 26, 2015 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

In my experience, I have found lawyers to be some of the most cowardly humans Guyana has produced. Moral obligation prevents me from naming names. But here are some nameless descriptions. I went to interview an Attorney for my column. A Magistrate’s deportment in a matter before her was incongruous with moral rules. She needed to be written about. The lawyer provided me with the details then exclaimed, “Freddie don’t mention my name, I have to appear in front of this woman.”
Another lawyer told me in relation to another Magistrate; “I can’t go public with that Freddie, I make my living as a lawyer.” To date, I can count only two lawyers who have openly commented negatively on the decision of a judicial officer. Timothy Jonas, as Bar Association President, agreed to be quoted on an unusual action by Chief Justice Chang. Eleven months after President Jagdeo brought his libel suit against me and Kaieteur News, it came to trial. This was and remains a record in Guyanese legal history.
Jonas went further to point out he knows of one other approximate situation involving a then Minister suing an anti-Government critic, Clem David. In discussion with a prominent lawyer when the Chief Justice brought forward Jagdeo’s writ, he said, “Freddie, don’t quote me, I have to protect my clients.” What he meant was that if the Judge had taken offence to what he read, his clients may have faced consequences. Christopher Ram penned a trenchant rejection of the ruling of the Chief Justice on the two-term presidential restriction.
Finally, no lawyer was willing to publish a disagreement with the Chief Justice’s decision in the Carol Sooba case. The CJ ruled that the Minister of Local Government did not have the authority to appoint Sooba as Town Clerk but he mandated her continuation in office as de facto Town Clerk on the premise that a specific writ has to be directed to the Town Clerk herself challenging her right to continue. I have written four times about that ruling; this is my fifth. Several lawyers told me that once the Minister acted ultra vires, Ms. Sooba’s occupancy of the office became legally untenable. But none wanted to be cited in the media
I use the word, “contextually” instead of “essentially” because all professions have their associations; law is no different. But in the context of the rule of law and judicial deportment, the Bar Association is on morally questionable grounds. Can it be trusted to expose judicial improprieties, excessive judicial behaviour and erratic sentencing? The answer is no, because lawyers have to appear in front of the officers they castigated. It is not a question of lack of integrity or personalized relations between lawyer and the judicial system. The argument is that contextually, lawyers are hamstrung in a structure made for such limitations.
A lawyer (we must note the notable exception of Ram and Jonas) simply cannot expose a Judge or a Magistrate with the knowledge that they have long years ahead of them to appear in front the very officer they have publicly embarrassed. For this reason, I think the focus of the Bar Association will continue to be on the holistic approach to law reform rather than the human rights basis of judicial improprieties. Notwithstanding the constraints, the Bar Association needs to intervene and stop many charades in the legal system that have reduced this country to a farce
There is a weekly circus that the Bar Association cannot tell the nation it does not know about. In media and political circles, I have heard about some strange occurrences in the realm of denial and granting of bail. Each week, the Chief Justice receives about a dozen petitions for the placement of bail denied in the original appearance in the lower courts. This is a weekly event that has been going on for years. The Chief Justice then assigns bail. This is a mockery that borders on contempt for the rule of law.
My question is why the process keeps taking place. Shouldn’t there be a review to see if the lower courts are not acting according to legal procedures? Why is the Bar Association silent on the comical yet abusive situation where lawyers’ clients are turned away from the courts because a police rookie, without any training in aesthetic philosophy, determines the “loudness” or “softness” of the colour of a garment? I will have more to say on the correct stance President Ganger took on the complaint the Bar Association made about his presidential pardon of forty convicted young men

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The Bar Association is contextually flawed

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