A MAJOR ongoing topic at the moment has to do with the delinquency of lawyers who are practicing in Guyana. The issue has even reached our Parliament which is the highest forum of our country.

Mr. Raphael Trotman, who is head of a political movement in our country has so far chosen to remain silent on that subject, but instead he took centre stage to rightly say that the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) should prosecute those who misuse taxpayers’ money.

Now that he is in that mood of talking, it would be so nice to hear him say that the DPP should also prosecute all those lawyers and also those lawyers who have ‘begotten’ lawyers, who use their offices to commit perjury, fraud or any misdeeds on litigants.

Perhaps, Mr Trotman could also extend his call in Parliament for the Legal Practitioners’ Committee (LPC) to allot a sizeable amount of energetic DPP personnel to be part of its sittings, along with reputable members of civil society, and based on evidence obtained there, the DPP should be provided with the clout to directly prosecute lawyers, if necessary.

The present procedures to meander the findings through the fraternal channels have proven to be a disaster for complaints.

Furthermore, the Police should be provided unimpeded access to documented evidence, if can be found, of past hearing at the LPC which may be reviewed for any necessary action. There are scores of cases there which were all sent to oblivion, much to the dismay of those who wasted time to search for justice from their ‘justice dispensers’.

Those confirmed aftermaths of hearings could only direct intelligent minds to a complete overhaul of the workings of the LPC. Anyone looking at the proposed amendments of the laws to govern the lawyers, should recognise that he or she is being bamboozled by the prejudiced legal practitioners on the issue.

Basically, the proposed regulations are about the same as the current laws of Guyana governing Legal Practitioners Under Cap.4.01, except for the appeasement of the fraternal kinship of the Bar Association as a shock absorber in order to introduce the practice certificates issue.

The corruption by the hoodwinkers will continue if that pretext of Amendment Bill No. 45 of 2009 is allowed to be passed as presented.

It’s no wonder that the lawyers in Parliament have no objections to the proposed legislation, except for the requirements of practice certificates to be issued by the Government Revenue Authority.

We do not need a lantern to see in the night what we can all see in the sunlight of the day.
PRAKASH PERSAUD