BU has been able to access the audited financial report of the Bar Association (BA) relative to the Compensation Fund. BU notes that the fund holds in excess of $2 million. The authority for the Fund is to be found at Part VIII of the Legal Professions Act Cap. 370A of the Laws of Barbados.
Briefly, the Act states:
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The Fund is the property of the BA and must be paid into a separate bank account to the credit of the BA to be known as “the Attorneys-at-law Compensation Fund”.
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Every attorney-at-law is required, when a Practicing Certificate is issued to him, to pay to the Registrar his/her annual contribution to the Fund, without which no Practicing Certificate will be issued.
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“50. (1) Where it is proved to the satisfaction of the Bar Association that any person has sustained loss in consequence of dishonesty on the part of an attorney-at-law or any clerk or servant of an attorney-at-law in connection with that attorney-at-law’s practice as an attorney-at-law or in connection with any trust of which that attorney-at-law is a trustee, then, subject to the provisions of this section, the Association may, if it thinks fit, make a grant to that person out of the Fund for the purpose of relieving or mitigating that loss.”
A few points to ponder from the reading of the posted financials.
A. There were over 300 Practicing Certificates issued in January 2012. The contribution of each attorney-at-law is set at $200 per attorney-at-law, giving a total of $60,000 payable into the account. The Government is required to pay for the Practicing Certificates and into the Contribution Fund for attorneys-at-law that it employs. Yet, it is noted that the amount paid into the Contribution Fund falls FAR short of what it should be. So, has the Government paid its share, or not? If NOT, why has the Registrar of the Supreme Court issued Practicing Certificates to these lawyers? The legislature is supposed to be independent of the judiciary and vice versa. That appears not to be the practice in Barbados, in defiance of the Constitution.
B. It should be further noted that there are absolutely NO payments out of the Fund, so clearly none of the teefing lawyers’ clients, in the opinion of the BA, has ever experienced hardship as a result of the theft – and the Fund has never been used. EXCEPT!
C. Except, on page 8 at No. 3, it is noted that the Fund has been used to pay for advertising with regard to deceased attorneys’ estates. Is this misappropriation?
This is a mess. Clearly it is something that the Attorney General needs to look into and likely to file charges. But how can he if the Government is not paying its share into the Fund and, despite that, the Registrar is issuing Practicing Certificates? Independent judiciary? So what do we make of it?
Audited Financial Report of Compensation Fund – pages 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8
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