General Legal Council Dormant. Who’s to Blame for its Inertia?

Wilfred Elrington

On Tuesday attorney Ernest Staine was before the Supreme Court facing committal to prison for the misappropriation of monies belonging to a client. o prison monies belonging to a client.efore the Supreme Court facing committal for the misapproprry was out of office. We’ anywThe very serious matter is a black eye for the legal fraternity, and has been fuel poured onto the fire of reports of crooked attorneys. Many complaints have been made against attorneys, but those complaints only seem to gather dust in the chambers of a defunct body called the General Legal Council. That disciplinary entity is not functioning, and blame has been laid at the doorstep of Attorney-General Wilfred Elrington. Today News Five sought clarity from Elrington, since it appears that now more than ever, there is a need for the Council.

Wilfred Elrington, Attorney-General

“What happened is that late last year we passed legislation which made it optional for attorneys to be members of the Bar Association and there is also a provision in that legislation for two members to be appointed to the General legal Council, the disciplinary body, by the Minister, that is myself, and in order for us to do that we have to be able to ascertain the members, the lawyers who are no longer members of the Bar, and then select from among those two persons, because I don’t think it would be prudent and wise to appoint all the members to the Council from the Bar Association, so those members who are not members of the Bar should be given a chance to be appointed. I certainly have given instructions to get me a list of those attorneys who are not members of the Bar. As soon as that is furnished to me then we will be in a position to notify the Chief Justice, who wrote me on it, who asked me for the names. I think he wrote me about it about two weeks ago, three weeks ago, and since then I gave instructions to the Solicitor General to identify those attorneys who would qualify to be appointed. I haven’t gotten back any response on that yet. I am told that there is not a cutoff date for the ascertainment of who are now members of the Bar and who are not members of the Bar because that is going to be determined by who has paid their dues and who has not paid their dues.”