Bill to regulate lawyers sent to Select Committee
THE Legal Practitioners (Amendment) Bill 2009 was sent to a Special Select Committee of Parliament on Monday, after a heated but well-informed debate in the National Assembly.

The legislation, in the name of Attorney General (AG) and Minister Legal Affairs, Mr. Charles Ramson, seeks to enhance regulation of the legal profession and strengthen the powers of the Legal Practitioners Committee (LPC), which is responsible for disciplining attorneys-at-law.

Among other things, it would allow for the LPC, after consultation with the Guyana Bar Association (GBA), to make rules regulating the conduct of lawyers.

It was, generally, supported by the Opposition but Section 15 (2) caused much contention.

That section stipulates that lawyers will not practice, unless issued a certificate by the Commissioner General of Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) in accordance with the provisions of Section 39 of the Tax Act.

Ramson, explaining the provisions, said much of what was reported in the media was misunderstood and, unlike what some seemed to suggest, there is no sinister move afoot against lawyers.

Instead, the AG said it will pave the way for dishonest and unreliable tendencies in lawyers to disappear.

Ramson said, too, that, contrary to perception, the legislation aims to internalise the work of a major professional body, regulate lawyers’ conduct and make them meet their obligations to the State.

NO APOLOGY
He said his Government has no apology for it as it is pivotal to forging ahead with the developmental process.

“Those who forgo the oath must forgo the right,” he declared, emphasising that lawyers have a unique franchise to practice.

People’s National Congress Reform-One Guyana (PNCR-1G) Parliamentarian, Mrs. Clarissa Riehl lauded the proposals, notably the giving of statutory recognition to the GBA.

But she said the contentious part of the legislation, which aims to deny a lawyer the right to practice, under the guise of professional misconduct, is a breach of the attorney-at-law’s constitutional right to work.

Riehl said no Commonwealth country has imposed such severe regulations on lawyers and charged that the proposed law is also discriminatory to lawyers, because other professionals who do not comply with the Tax Act do not suffer the same fate.

She told the House that the Bill opens up avenues for misuse by the Government, against those who are not politically favoured.

NO CONSPIRACY
People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Member of Parliament (MP) and former Information Minister, Mr. Moses Nagamootoo, expressed the view that there is no conspiracy involved and urged that the move, by higher authority, to “manners lawyers for negligence” must be welcomed.

He declared that the right to work is not automatic, as certain basic criteria have to be met and any law abiding and decent citizen would strive to honour the concomitant obligations.

The scare and fear reportage in the media about the Commissioner General, said Nagamootoo, is a mere distraction from the real intention of the Bill which seeks, as well, to strengthen regulation of the legal profession.

Alliance For Change (AFC) Chairman, Mr. Khemraj Ramjattan, said the Government move is welcome but he was strongly against the withholding of the licences, by the GRA Commissioner General, for failing to settle their taxes.

Ramjattan argued that the Bar must be protected from creeping State and Central Government control and posited that Section 15 (2) of the Bill opens the way for improper motives, maybe not by the current government but, probably, in time to come.