In the magistracy, Guyana gets “bun bun.”

Dec 21, 2014 Letters

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Dear Editor,
I attempt below to answer a question which forms the caption of a letter; “Is something wrong with the selection process for magistrates?” written by Francis Carryl. This is one of the easiest questions to answer about life in Guyana
There is no selection process for magistrates in Guyana. The shortages are always there, thus the vacancies are always there, so once you apply, you get the job. If there were many applicants to choose from, then one can speak of the selection criteria
To understand why a person would become a lawyer but lack the total capacity to perform as an attorney, one has to go back hundreds of years when people regarded the two most prestigious occupations as medicine and law. If you were a doctor or a lawyer, then you became part of the crème de la crème of society
Strangely, this tradition holds strong up to today. Competition for entry into medical school is common at most universities in the world including moribund UG. Ask any immigrant in the US, Canada and Europe and they would tell you it is almost impossible to compete with local applicants for a place in the medical school of any university. This explains the reason for the birth of off shore medical school in small, obscure countries    Young people all over the world feel they have arrived or they have it made if they are a doctor or lawyer
The practice of law or competence in the courts is completely different matter. I taught countless law students during my 26 years stay at UG, including our country’s Attorney General and a number of sitting magistrates. As a lecturer it wasn’t hard to detect who would fall by the wayside even though they passed the bar. But I know why they wanted to become lawyers
It has reached the unpleasant stage in Guyana where, including the medical profession with its constant profusion of poorly trained graduates from Cuban medical schools, has more lawyers than any other profession. Yes, including doctors.
Many of these attorneys cannot earn a middle class, monthly income. Some find work in state corporations. Others end up in the private sector. Others just cannot make it as court room performers. They settle for the municipal court where the cases are small matters and lawyer’s fees are small, for example, the City Council charged a housewife for blocking a draining canal with builder’s waste. Some specialize in landlord/tenant cases
One has to understand that with rents in downtown areas sky high, plus utilities bills plus secretarial salaries, these mediocre lawyers will not survive in private practice. In a country drowning in vehicular traffic, a second rate mechanic takes home ten times what these mediocre lawyers earn on Croal Street
There is an absurd dimension to this intriguing reality. While dozens of lawyers go hungry, there is a small school of lawyers who simply cannot take off the work load. The reason for this is that people do not take chances on important cases; they want to feel secure with a top class lawyer. Against this backdrop, I will now attempt an answer to Mr. Carryl’s question. Magistrates get the job because that is their only avenue to survive in the legal profession. The job is certain because the rush to become magistrates is not fashionable. The State then facing a shortage, takes all kinds of Jim Cock bring ram goat, meaning that the State gets the very bottom of the barrel or in common parlance, “bun bun”
I say in all honesty, a large percentage of these magistrates are so poor in terms of erudition, scholarship and competence that litigants and accused will not take them if they set up private practice. I come now to an interesting point. These magistrates take excessive latitude in abusing people that appear in front of them and behaving in disgraceful ways because they know the State needs them. Remove them and the shortage gets more disturbing. Since 1985, Guyana has not had an adequate number of magistrates
I end with two investigative reports into the magistracy. A woman in tears came up to me and Mark Benschop while we were visiting Dale Andrews of the Kaieteur News at the Caribbean Heart Institute. This was at a time when Blackberry was the fashionable phone and was pretty expensive. She said she didn’t know she had to switch off her phone in court, it rang and the magistrate confiscated it. She didn’t get it back.
We visited the magistrate. She denied she took possession of the phone. Months after, I met the prosecutor while shopping and he told me the magistrate kept the phone. If the Judicial Service Commission offers me protection from libel, I will name the magistrate
Finally, a whistle-blower informed me that there are some magistrates who are involved in an immoral caper with certain lawyers. The magistrates would refuse bail. This allows the lawyers to charge more to apply to the High Court. The magistrate then makes an extra judicial-income from this game. I close with a caveat – unless there are more watchdogs like Mr. Caryl, these magistrates are going to continue their sadism on the bench
Frederick Kissoon     

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