Attorney General critical of the Bar leadership

Wilfred ‘Sedi’ Elrington

The appointment has sparked off a heated, but surgical verbal flurry between Prime Minister Dean Barrow and President of the Bar Eamon Courtenay. Today Attorney-General Wilfred Elrington weighed in, venting his long-held frustration at a Bar Association which he says serves no useful purpose.

Wilfred ‘Sedi’ Elrington, Attorney-General

“The leadership of the Bar has been singular in not volunteering to do anything to help the poor people of this country. They basically have done very well working for very rich people who in many cases are taking legal action against the government, and I don’t know to what extent the people of Belize understand it, but whenever we get a judgment against the government on behalf of Lord Ashcroft or the Ashcroft Group or Fortis Group or whatever it is, it is you and I, the taxpayers who must pay that judgment. So that those leading attorneys are invariably not necessarily working for the people of Belize. They are almost always working for the other investors who in many cases are exploiting our country. And when we try to take steps to prevent that kind of thing, they all participate in the defence of those enterprises. We understand that. It is not the place of the Bar Associations to be passing resolutions of that nature. I was very disappointed. I can tell you that not too long ago in New Zealand the President of the Bar Association resigned his position because of an appointment that had been made to the judiciary as well. That could be done. If you’re upset, you resign. But I think that the passing of the resolution was a really low blow and I think that certainly in my estimation it has put the bar Association even lower.”