As my troubles at Cottle Catford resulted from the failure of my former partners to honour their agreement, the toll on me was only too evident to my close friends. Several of them, especially those who were not attorneys , were incredulous as to what was transpiring in our legal system, as no one doubted that money was owed. However it was my friend Yvette Lemonias Seale who first said to me “Philip I hope you are chronicling these happenings to write about them.”
These are the opening lines of the book titled More Binding Than Marriage by Philip Nicholls. Posting this blog is not an attempt to win sales for Philip Nicholls who has had to suffer shame since his charge, it is about being fair. BU’s single purpose is the pursuit of truth!
@David, he is a good man. Glad he was able to get the truth out.
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Amused
@David. I have not read this book and, frankly, have no intention of ordering it either. If I do read it, it will be because the author is being sued and then it may become an unpalatable part of the job. I hope it does not come to that as I would not relish being forced to read a similar content to that of the outpourings of one Angela Cole which, although initially titillating, soon becomes the literary equivalent of a sleeping pill.
Ms Cole has adopted the tribal name of the Indian chief Sitting Bull – may we expect Mr Nicholls to follow suit, with a slight variation by adding one letter (and the BU family will have to guess which letter) and call himself “S*itting Bull”?
You are aware of the view the best defence against defamation is the truth. Like it or not Nicholls has put his position in written form for public review.Several prominent actors in the legal community have been dubbed by his black brush. We shall see how this adds to the widely held view that our legal fraternity can easily be described as a den of inequity.
Congrats on getting this publication out, Philip. I know how painful the experience was and still is for you. Let them, whoever they may be, sue. I pledge you my assistance in that regard.
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Bush Tea
This is the kind of inside story that NEEDS URGENTLY to be told.
Can we not have extracts of the book published on BU David? – perhaps the same extracts that Amazon provides as adverts…?
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Well Well & Consequences
Amused…..I want to read the book, you are usually balanced so I hope it’s not the fraternity-hood talking. Angela Cole, though having her own issues spoke many truths in her books, she was able to because she was right there on the spot with all the players…..just as Nicholls ass/is right thrre on the spot with all the players, everyone cannot be lying.
I will give him the benefit of the doubt….let him bring it all into the open, we are all adults and are quite capable of differentiating lies from truth…..why should he be stopped from saying anything.
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Well Well & Consequences
Oops…should read..just as Nicholls was/is right thrre on the spot with all the players, everyone cannot be lying.”
This book may have to be ordered directly from Amazon, I just called Pages and they don’t carry it, anyone surprised, however, that will not stop sales….I am ordering mine.
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Hants
@ David,
Call Nicholls and ask him to send “promotional” extracts from the book.
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Well Well & Consequences
I am all for promoting this book across the western hemisphere, as soon as we now hear there is talk of suing Nicholls, they are trying to hide something dirty, as usual…..this attorney is facing a very serious and life altering charge, as long as he knows he is innocent, it’s wicked and unfair to ask him to take one for the team, just to keep the legal fraternity and all their wrongdoings intact.
As I remember Cottle Catford was/is a ‘white law firm’ just as was St.Claire Hutchinson’s, deceased….the elderly, if still alive, can tell what happened to them at their hands.
I will personally buy the books and distribute to friends and family.
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Violet C Beckles
The Philip Nicholls Story – ? Do you think your story is better than Violet Beckles? DO you know that same law firm had a role in defrauding the people of Bim, Check out the UDC and what checks they may have gotten ,Look for made up names and payments,,, If you are clean and one of the few good lawyers in BIM , Welcome to My world of crooks liars and scumbags of Barbados,
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Amused
@David. We will have to see if anyone sues. We will likely have to wait some weeks as our Civil Procedure Rules mandate a certain pre-action protocol that is not public domain.
I have no problem with Nicholls airing his views and opinions on the defunct Cottle Catford and its partners. Its heyday was long over by the time Nicholls arrived there. Cottle Catford used to be the most important firm of solicitors in Barbados and one of the most important in the Caribbean. However, its fortunes were in terminal decline by the time Nicholls joined it, due to some publicized and some unpublicized but well known problems, of which the most notorious was certainly Hugh Michael “Mike” Simmons.
What I do think is very imprudent is Nicholls’ collateral attacks on other counsel outside of Cottles who were likely merely doing their jobs on behalf of their respective clients. In fact, doing what Nicholls himself would have had a duty to do for his clients.
Mr Nicholls’ own peculiar conduct in the recent past certainly begs question.
Every year, the Registrar publishes in the Official Gazette a list of attorneys at law to whom practicing certificates have been issued. Towards the end of last year, Mr Nicholls appeared in court for a client. Opposing counsel asked if he had a practicing certificate as his name could not be found on the Registrar’s list as published in the Official Gazette. This is a perfectly reasonable question for any attorney to ask, as all attorneys are officers of the court and have the duty to ask such questions to maintain the integrity of the court and those who practice in it. All Mr Nicholls had to do was to give an undertaking to the court to fax, e-mail or present his practicing certificate. Instead, Mr Nicholls, while not confirming that he had a practicing certificate, chose to lose it and to make highly defamatory comments in court about the attorney asking the question. So, Mr Nicholls, can you confirm that for the year 2015 you held a practicing certificate?
There have also been some instances where, in the precincts of the court, Nicholls has threatened other counsel. I can say this, because there were a number of witnesses and there exist a number of sworn statements to support my contentions.
@Bushy. I agree that transparency is long overdue in so far as the courts and the legal profession in Barbados are concerned. However, Mr Nicholls’ book should not be seen as being such until its assertions are free and clear of any legal challenges. Best, I think, to make your distrust of attorneys a blanket one and to not exclude Mr Nicholls, simply because he is purporting to have written as exposee that may easily end up by confirming your general opinions about lawyers in general with particular emphasis on him.
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Well Well & Consequences
Lol…Amused….I loved that one. Just ordered Nicholls’ book from Amazon for myself and 5 others, now you got me real interested.
On a slightly different note it is reported in today’s press that Errol Niles is taking the Registrar of the Supreme Court for withholding his practising certificate.
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Bernard Codrington.
This is very interesting;but at the same time very sad. I hope the publishing of this book will help young professionals in all fields to trust but please verify. Pride and Industry is the trade mark of all Barbadians. Pay particular attention to pride as defined by our forefathers who had only a seventh standard elementary school education.
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Well Well & Consequences
I would suggest everyone read the book with an open mind, most of us already know through either experience or the experiences of others, who the worst attorneys on the island are, we also know the identities of the best attorneys, the island is too small to continue to hide everything and people have a right to know who are the best and worst attorneys, for their own protection,.
I don’t think Nicholls is suffering from any mental illness.
Enough wrong has been done to people who did not know any better and who were trusting, many of them have gone to their graves.
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Amused
@David February 4, 2016 at 12:24 PM. Would not be surprising at all. As I said earlier, each year attorneys pay for and are issued practicing certificates. I know of a couple of cases in 2016 where attorneys rendered their payments and were told that, unless they also produced receipts from the BA that they had paid their subscriptions to the BA, they were not to be issued practicing certificates. In both cases, the Registrar received letters giving her 48 hours within which to issue the certificates. The practicing certificates were issued at once.
It is going to be very interesting to see how the Registrar tries to get around this double standard in the case of Mr Niles if she continues to refuse. Personally, I do not think that she can.
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Donna
I will definitely be buying this book. We know the legal system is rotten and many of us know who some of the rotten apples are. I shall keep an open mind as I read but some of us already know through personal experience the character of some of the persons mentioned. The opening of this can of worms with an electric can opener could be the most significant service to Barbados that Mr. Nicholls performs.
Mr. Amused,
Judging from the extracts I will not be falling asleep!
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Big stupse
Philip stole hundreds of thousands of dollars from friends and family of his. These people are loyal to him and would never report it, a fact he is aware of and takes advantage of. He would never cronicle this. As a partner in a law firm it is not enough to claim you had no idea theft was going on, especially when you have a fiduciary duty to your clients to take necessary steps to know everything that is going on in the Firm and to report it.
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Well Well & Consequences
The CCJ continues to send a message to the Chief Justice Gibson in Barbados, something has to be done about the justice system and how business is done.
There is no one to report bad lawyers or bad practices to on the island. The Bar Association is non-functioning as it relates to protecting the clients of bad lawyers, the Bar Association president has no powers to do anything.. the disciplinary committee head, for whatever reason, does nothing to address client’s complaints.
One person who called to complain was told that nothing can be done. Hence the a long list of lawyers names, whose clients cannot get any recourse against the treatment they receive, ended up online……..for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction…
Lawyers who see wrongdoing and report it, unless it’s a collective effort by a number of lawyers, I believe would be villified for not playing the decades old game. They should not however, be let off the hook for their weakness in not coming forward to put an end to what everyone now knows has been a fraternity effort…which has led to destruction of the trust people had before for lawyers….all of which is of their own making and they have no one to blame but themselves.
If nothing else, hopefully reading this book will show new lawyers the pitfalls of falling in line and supportng the status quo……just for a job. Lost of trust and integrity eventually affects anyone. If the lawyers were smart, as a collective, they would report each time one of their own violates their clients trust, make an example of the bad ones, change the way business is done.
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Well Well & Consequences
I see the book already had one review from a Michael Springer, a totally Bajan name, I wonder if he even read the book, first ya gotta order it and wait a couple days for delivery. If you are ordering from Barbados and pay for shipping and tracking, it takes one week or more for delivery, if not you have to wait a month for delivery.
There is no need to be deceitful…I hope he knows he can be reported for abuse.
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Hants
@ Well Well & Consequences,
It is possible Nicholls gave the book to Michael Springer.
Let google be your new best friend. lol
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Donna
In the red corner we have Philip Nicholls who has published his name on his accusations and in the blue corner we have – Big Stupse who er…. hasn’t.
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Well Well & Consequences
Hants….the dude or dudette can be anyone calling themselves Michael Springer or you could be right. We know there are the extremely vicious on the island who would go to any extreme to cover up wrongdoing and try to prevent exposure.
However, none of that will stop the book from being read….lol
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NorthernObserver
The book is prefaced
This is a work of non-fiction.
The events are portrayed to the best of Philip V. Nicholl’s
memory. While all the stories in this book are true, some
identifying details have been changed to protect
the privacy of the people involved.
The conversations in the book all come from the author’s
recollections, though they are not written to represent
word-for-word transcripts.
The author has retold them in a way that evokes the
feeling and meaning of what was said, and in all instances
the essence of the dialogue is accurate.
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NorthernObserver
From the “Foreward” penned by the author’s father, Sir Neville Nicholls
Philip’s reputation was seriously damaged, which, given the facts
of the meltdown of Cottle, is a gross miscarriage of justice. His legal
practice has been decimated and his ability to travel restricted because
of what I can say as a former chairman of the Anti-Money Laundering
Authority is a ridiculous policy apparently being peddled by the office
of the DPP, which in so doing fails to recognize that the situation
that Philip faced was never the genesis of what constitutes money
laundering under the legislation that he was charged, with its links to
the financing of terrorism.
As chairman of that authority, I had pointed out on several occasions
at meetings at which the DPP was present, that the pressure by the
OECD and its sidekick the Financial Action Task Force on countries
like Barbados to amend their anti-money laundering legislation to
permit money laundering charges to be attached to any case of theft
of money, was a device by the OECD to increase the number of
Money Laundering cases occurring in Barbados and other Caribbean
countries, and thereby provide the OECD with the evidence to press
for the closing down of the Offshore Financial Centres based in such
countries. This was also intended by the OECD to divert attention
from the real centres of money laundering in London, New York,
Miami, Zurich and Luxembourg where more significant money
laundering transactions take place daily than in Caribbean Offshore
Financial Centres annually.
I wonder if the AG read this prior to some of his recent comments?
Surely it will be a travesty of justice if those who initiated the charges
against him were not made to pay through the same legal system for
actions taken for what now appears to be an attempt to deflect attention
from the defalcations of his partners, one of whom had a professional
relationship with the person whose written letter to the Commissioner
of Police instigated the charges.
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Big rasoul stupse
Donna, fortunately you speak from a different vantage point than I do. Philip has lost his mind and is seeking attention and pity. Even his own family knows this. This wallowing in self pity has caused him to write a book.
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TheGazer
Interesting how a fellow write a book and we get (a) those who will not read it, (b) accusations against him, (c) derision and psychoanalysis…
Look like a few stones got turned…
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Georgie Porgie
derision and psychoanalysis… IS THE MOST OBVIOUS THING ENCOUNTERED ON BU
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NorthernObserver
And it would appear, dey got nuff more stones about to be turned, dat we en expecking.
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Amused
@Big stupse. You are completely right.
@ Well well. The book is published in Barbados by Caribbean Chapters Inc. located in Oistins. So your scenario as to how Michael Springer got hold of a copy is not correct, is it.
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Bush Tea
@ TheGazer
Boss, can you imagine the seriousness of a bitter insider washing the nasty Bajan legal linen in the World wide Amazon basin?
Do you understand that 90% of the lawyers bout here use client funds as their personal slush fund for mortgages, car loans, loans to friends, outside women /men and all kind of shiite…
Do you know that they routinely get together and collude on the outcomes of legal cases –
You know how much shiite these crooks get themselves involved in … especially since they also control politics on the island…?
Even if this particular book is more like a stink bomb than the Hiroshima ‘big boy’, it got them pissing scared – because it may start a trend that leads to a massive implosion..
In any case it is a welcome change from Harold Hoyte’s shiite book about some mythical ‘political warriors’ …. lotta shiite bout the other set of crooks….
YOU…!!
Suppose Caswell was to write a book… free of the editorial control of the OCM traitors at the Nation…?
I am interested in knowing the nitty gritty of this hitherto mafia type cabal calling themselves attorneys at law.It must have taken Philip lots of guts to do the honourable thing and go public.Coming events cast shadows.Some names are already before the court for unusual events.Its a vicious turn of events.Bajans appear to long for honesty and decency when dealing with lawyers.It must start at the top.Perhaps the AG would speak since we have all been holding our breath for the result of his checking out MAM legal certificate to practice here.
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Well Well & Consequences
I am going to be a good girl until I read that book…lol
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Well Well & Consequences
That is all Gabriel. The clients are just asking the lawyers to be honest when conducting their legal business, commit themselves to representing the client’s business and best interest to the best of their ability….I don’t see where that is asking too much. One person I know just turned so vicious on their attorney, I doubt the lawyer has slept well in months, through his own fault. All of that could be avoided if they simply did their jobs…and moved on instead of trying to turn every case into a decades long production…..those so inclined make things much harder than they need to be.
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Donna
The Big Stupse has added a rasoul to his name. That still does not help us to identify him, unfortunately.
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TheGazer
Good one, Donna.
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Donna
Well Well,
I think it was Andrew Pilgrim who more or less admitted that the old- fashioned attorneys were inclined to milk a case for all it was worth whilst the new attorneys were more geared towards finishing a case to move on to the next one. Maybe we should give the younger ones a chance before they are indoctrinated.
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Well Well & Consequences
True Donna….the new attorneys need an introduction to reality and not indoctrination and training into how things were done before…., however, some of those in their 40s and 50s succumbed to that indoctrination, to their own detriment….spoke to a couple really young ones and they tell you they believe the old way of providing services to clients is counterproductive and they have no intention of following that pattern..
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Well Well & Consequences
Problem is and here is where it gets dicey for the younger attorneys…many of them after being called to the Bar, make a decision to pass through the offices of the more experienced, established attorneys if they are ambitious, want certain experience and want to make it into that clique everyone is aware of, it however, comes with a steep price……I suspect that is what Nicholls will allude to in his book.
The younger attorneys will now have to show immense strength of character and avoid certain firms, as one young lady I know personally who is making her own way, building on her own good reputation without trying to ride any coat tails, she knows her reputation depends on it and does not want the involvement. …knows if she bows to any pressure, her reputation on the island will be gone within 10 years.
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Big stupse
@Amused….I know I’m completely right. I state facts. I’m not here to malign anyone or whatever is left of his reputation. Philip is completely out of control and those around him should seek help for him instead of laughing at him. This book is just a continuation of his years of bitching and complaining. Many of his friends have seen and heard the book years before it was even written. Remember Cottle Catford folded a decade ago. The book maybe a good read for those who have an interest in gossip or can equally stomach the soliloquy of a madman.
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Hants
Nicholls wrote a book as is his right to do in the freest black country in the world.
If he wrote lies about anyone they can sue him.
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NorthernObserver
@BS
you echo the rhetoric of the quintessential Barbadian…
“I know I’m completely right. I state facts. I’m not here to malign anyone”…..[but]….I will proceed to malign whatever is left of him!!!!!
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Big stupse
Lol
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Big stupse
@Northern… Philip himself admits that he has lost his mind, but blames it on the ordeal. This is no secret. I’m asking for his friends to stop laughing at him and get him the help he needs.
Btw, how kind of Sir Neville for his soft and very kind words on behalf of his son. Very admirable indeed. But what I could not understand is his take on money laundering. ‘ Oh it’s ok to steal and convert those illegally obtained proceeds for your own use and for other ligitimate business expenses, but let’s not stretch it and call it money laundering. You’re over-reaching Mr. Prosecutor’. Like seriously dude!??????
And Sir Neville, Sir you know it is a mistruth to imply that Philip’s passport was taken away indefinitely. I’m sure you know of his recent and regular travel to the UK and the US at least from Feb 2015.
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