Legal Practitioners Bill a progressive step in the provision of legal service

The Legal Practitioners (Amendment) Bill 2009 which is currently before a Special Select Committee of the National Assembly is indeed a forward step as regards enforcing of rules governing the conduct of lawyers which has been an issue of concern for a very long time. And maybe this proposed legislation should been tabled much earlier because there have been numerous complaints from members of the public about the quality of service which some lawyers provide even though hefty fees are charged.

Many clients are simply ripped off by some unscrupulous legal practitioners who under the current dispensation do not have any real legal recourse to address their concerns. It is true that the Guyana Bar Association (GBA) sets out certain standards which should be followed by its members but this body does not have any real power to sanction lawyers who do not live up to the required ethical practices associated with the profession.

However, it was good to see that the parliamentary opposition parties, despite their concerns about certain aspects of the Bill, have supported the proposed legislation while their concerns will be addressed at the level of the Special Select Committee.

The main area of contention by the opposition seems to be the provision dealing with the requirement of compliance of the Tax Act with regards to licenses to perform.

But it must be acknowledged that many lawyers have been practicing their profession for many years but have not been paying their fair share of taxes thus denying the national coffers of much needed funds. In fact, one of the concerns of the general public has been that while salaried/waged workers taxes are automatically deducted under the P.A.Y.E system many self-employed professionals and others who earn far much more income actually pay less in taxes which is definitely unfair.

Therefore, it is strange that the opposition would not find favour with such a provision. Nevertheless, the essential matter is that they are supportive of the proposed bill in principle and those aspects on which they differ could be resolved within the deliberations of the Special Select Committee.

On this note People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Member of Parliament (MP) and former Information Minister, Mr. Moses Nagamootoo, made an important contribution to the debate when 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.

Having rules and codes of ethics governing professions is nothing new and this includes the legal profession, whereby there not only there existing rules governing their practice but they are subjected to revision as the need may arise

In the US on August 14, 1964, at the request of President Lewis F. Powell, Jr., the House of Delegates of the American Bar Association created a Special Committee on Evaluation of Ethical Standards to examine the then current Canons of Professional Ethics and to make recommendations for changes. That committee produced the Model Code of Professional Responsibility which was adopted by the House of Delegates in 1969 and became effective January 1, 1970. The new Model Code revised the previous Canons in four principal particulars: (1) there were important areas involving the conduct of lawyers that were either only partially covered in or totally omitted from the Canons; (2) many Canons that were sound in substance were in need of editorial revision; (3) most of the Canons did not lend themselves to practical sanctions for violations; and (4) changed and changing conditions in our legal system and urbanised society required new statements of professional principles.

As far back as 1934 Mr. Justice (later Chief Justice) Harlan Fiske Stone, in his memorable address entitled The Public Influence of the Bar, made this observation:

Before the Bar can function at all as a guardian of the public interests committed to its care, there must be appraisal and comprehension of the new conditions, and the chained relationship of the lawyer to his clients, to his professional brethren and to the public. That appraisal must pass beyond the petty details of form and manners which have been so largely the subject of our Codes of Ethics, to more fundamental consideration of the way in which our professional activities affect the welfare of society as a whole. Our canons of ethics for the most part are generalisations designed for an earlier era.

So what is being done with the legal profession here through the Legal Practitioners Bill should be seen in a positive light and a move intended to provide Guyanese with a higher quality of legal service as well as helping to preserve the integrity of the profession.

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