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‘Lawyers Bill’ deferred to facilitate consultations

Dec 05, 2009 News

The controversial Legal Practitioner’s (Amendment) Bill 2009 was deferred to another date in order to facilitate ongoing consultations. This move was requested by Attorney General Charles Ramson in Parliament on Thursday and was subsequently granted by Speaker of the National Assembly, Ralph Ramkarran.
However, some lawyers are still up in arms about the Bill, which they say will put a stronghold on the legal profession of Guyana.
Attorney at Law and PNCR Executive Member, Basil Williams, at the party’s weekly press conference on Thursday, noted that while lawyers are in agreement with the code of conduct for lawyers stipulated in the Bill, it also includes a provision which is repressive, where one person was identified to regulate whether a lawyer in Guyana could practise or not.
According to Williams, the Tax Act has adequate remedies and procedures to deal with persons who do not pay their right amount of taxes.
“It (the Bill) has no place in telling lawyers they can’t practise unless they have a practice certificate. So it’s not about lawyers paying taxes. It’s about a repressive instrument where the government could politicise that requirement to target lawyers, especially lawyers who have the courage and who have been in the forefront of confronting the excesses and lawlessness of this government,” Williams told the media.
He added that the Bill will directly impact the independence of lawyers in Guyana.
Of concern to the PNC/R is the fact that members of the legal profession were not given a copy of the Bill and therefore, they have not been able to make their views known or their voices heard.
Additionally, the party claimed that there was not enough consultation with the members of the legal profession for the far-reaching changes to the existing Legal Practitioners’ Act.
The proposed legislation has a provision which dictate that an Attorney-at-Law cannot practise his/her profession without first obtaining a Tax Practice Certificate from the Commissioner General of the Guyana Revenue Authority.
“A Tax Practice Certificate is a requirement under section 39 of the Tax Act. Non compliance with this requirement has its own regime of penalties under the Income Tax Act. However, the present Bill would effectively deny an Attorney-at-Law the right to practise his/her profession in the absence of this Certificate.
This is not only tantamount to double jeopardy, but infringes a person’s constitutional right to work,” the PNC/R noted.

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