Legal profession to be regulated…new Bill enacted
By Terresa McCall
Reporter-SKNVibes.com
~~Adz:Right~~BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – THE Legal Profession Bill, 2007, which was first read in the House of Parliament on October 24, 2007, received its second and third readings yesterday (Aug. 26) and has been enacted into law.
The bill was among five tabled at yesterday’s sitting and was moved by Attorney General, Dennis Merchant who explained that the bill, which has 48 clauses and six schedules and seeks to regulate or provide a guideline by which persons in the legal profession in St. Christopher and Nevis are to be governed.
“This bill primarily seeks to make provision for the regulation of members of the legal profession. In that connection…to make provision for the qualification, enrollment and discipline of the legal profession and to provide for related and incidental matters. … All this bill does is to ensure that (for) those of us who fall through the crack and fail to comply…there is a system put in place…that is able to rectify what is wrong and to ensure that justice and fairness are upheld.”
The AG explained that some time ago, a similar bill was forwarded to Parliament and given its first reading but resultant of concerns raised by the Bar Association, the bill was withdrawn.
“Mr. Speaker, you might be aware of the fact that in July 2005, there was a version of this Legal Profession Bill which was read a first time… However the bill went to its first reading and there were several concerns that were raised by the Bar Association that required significant reworking of this particular bill. As a result, this bill was withdrawn by this House on January 26, 2006 and I’m happy to report to this House, that after taking into account comments raised by the Bar Association, a modified version of this bill has been re-tabled in this Honourable National Assembly.”
In lending his support to the bill, Leader of the Opposition, Mark Brantley said that he is pleased that a framework is being put in place to give guidance to practitioners in the legal profession and also to assure the public that an avenue of recourse is available when it feels aggrieved.
“We have for some time been self-regulated and the fact that we are here today is a good thing but at the same time it is an indictment on the legal profession that we have not perhaps done the most effective job that we could have done at self-regulation thereby resulting in the need for legislation, for parliament to put in place a structure to regulate lawyers. It is the way of the world and as the honourable mover of the bill has indicated, there are bad eggs even in the best of professions and even in the most well-intentioned of professions.”
He continued, “We have individuals who have run afoul from time to time and I am happy, speaking for myself…to finally put in place a structure that can give the legal profession some guidance but also give the general public some comfort in knowing that parliament has seen it fit to put in place for them, a framework of protection so that going forward, they know that there are avenues available to them for redress when in legitimate circumstances and occasions, they feel that they have been wronged. I therefore give this bill my fullest support.”
The Law seeks to, among other things, provide for the affairs of the Bar Association to be managed by the Law Council, set out the purposes of the Association, make provisions for the enrollment and admission of attorneys at law to the Bar and provide for the maintenance of a register of attorneys.
