Attorney Dickie Bradley says the AG has hidden motives in attacking the Bar

Dickie Bradley

Attorney-General Wilfred Elrington has announced that he will be pushing through legislation to amend the Legal Profession Act. Elrington wants to remove the requirement that attorneys will have to join the Bar Association to practice. The proposal has come as a surprise and came to light when the Solicitor General recently wrote to the Chief Justice, Kenneth Benjamin and the Bar.  On Wednesday, no less than the Prime Minister Dean Barrow supported that decision by the AG, going further to state that if the Bar Association breaks up and another association forms he would join it. The Bar Association will meet on Monday to discuss the matter and issue a position, but until that happens attorneys have been weighing in. Today attorney Dickie Bradley called the proposed amendment a very bad move, with suspicious timing.

Dickie Bradley, Attorney

“I would think that the timing of this proposed legislation is because coming out of the mouth of the government, there are mostly P.U.P. in the Bar. That was a bad statement; that is not a reason to in fact basically break up an institution. The Bar Association is in every democratic country where there is the rule of law, the court, the practice of this particular profession. So the timing is extremely suspicious because what the proposed amendment would really do is in fact open the door for there to be a rival association, for there to be other associations which can’t be healthy. Although it is always healthy to have, you can still have that healthy discussion within any organization, which you do. And let me be a little mischievous and say to you that political parties in this country, there is no law that govern them. Financial donations and contributions to politicians and political parties, there is no law that governs them. we don’t know who is giving money to these political parties, how much, why they would want to do so. Who are these people who are donating money? How much money the political parties have to go and influence voters when an election si coming around. In case of the ninth amendment, people were saying that they were being paid to go and say I support the ninth amendment. So the timing has to be a matter of suspicion because the Bar Association would more than likely put out the views of the lawyers in relation to the matter. Now when the Bar is putting publicly its views and proposed legislation, it holds an open meeting for all lawyers; not a closed door meeting of just the executive or the so called P.U.P. members. It is open to all members and they all get copies of the draft circulated as for their input. You are getting a considered reasonable view of an organization. Now if what is being proposed takes place; that there can be other organizations, we will have the country have the views of the so called P.U.P. Bar and the views of the so called U.D.P. Bar. You would end up having no views; nobody pay attention because one wah di holla, oh dah the P.U.P. and the next one wah holla oh dah di U.D.P.”

And just as Bradley is convinced that the amendment to the Legal Profession Act will be pushed through at the earliest possible time, he is likewise convinced that there are ulterior motives for this sudden urgent move to break up the Bar.

Dickie Bradley

“I think it has to do with other motives; it can’t be—I am being a little cynical to say the poor lawyers in the association—the government has no interests ina di welfare and the wellbeing of lawyers and the association and so on. There is ulterior motives. There has to be man. The society is under tremendous stress. I just pointed out to you some areas that need attention; [and] there are lot more that need attention. If you are to go down right now to the Queen Street Police Station in Belize City, there are human beings including females who have to sleep on cold cement. Ina any civilized society, the police in carrying forward their duties must detain citizens; they must arrest citizens for the purpose of charging them for whatever. You mean we can’t even put a blanket on the cold cement. That is how bad it is and that happens all over the country you know—hundreds of citizens every week treated like animals. So there are a lot of things that really require the attention of the government including the same referendum. So yes they are pushing it through because the reason that they have publicly given is that they are P.U.P.”

This is an issue that will continue to develop and we’ll surely keep on top of it.