Reversal for fortune; judge to appear before lawyers

We reported last week of an unusual and special meeting of the Bar Association scheduled for next week. We say unusual because we all know that lawyers go before judges to have their cases tried. But we are not used to hearing about judges going before lawyers to have their cases tried. Well, in a way this is what is going to happen next week Tuesday, September twenty-ninth 2009. A concerned wing of the Bar Association of Belize has requisitioned a special meeting to try to pass a resolution inviting Judge Samuel Awich to resign. And if he doesn’t, they will ask the Governor-General Sir Colville Young to remove him from office for misbehavior. The only other time this happened was in 2001 when the Bar Association initiated a similar move against sitting Judge George Meerabux that eventually lead to Meerabux’s removal from office, an extremely rare occurrence here and the rest of the Commonwealth. This time members of the Bar have set their sights on Judge Awich. The allegations against Judge Awich are not anything like those against Meerabux who was charged with accepting money bribes as judge and other outrageous scandals. According to the proposed Bar Association resolution obtained by Channel Five, Judge Awich is accused of “persistent failure to render timely decisions in breach of his duties of office”. When we looked at the list of judgments reserved, we found no less than ten cases, with at least one dating back as far as 2004. This, according to the young lawyers, amounts to misbehavior which is grounds for removing a judge under the Belize Constitution. But not so fast. Bar Association insiders tell us that there will be a big showdown at the bar meeting between the young lawyers who want the judge’s head and the older lawyers who are grazing contentedly in the status quo. The bar may also split along political lines.
While the Bar, other judges and the then government were united in the decision that Judge Meerabux had to be removed in 2001, there is nothing like that kind of unanimity on the question of Awich’s expulsion. In fact, conventional thinking is that the government which is a key player in this process is not interested in isolating any of the judges given the many legal fights it has ahead of it. We will follow this one closely and keep you updated next week.