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Former Insider Attorney Philip Nicholls Exposes Barbados Court System

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Philip_NichllsIt would be disingenuous of BU not to have read Philip Nicholls’s book More Binding Than Marriage and to provide unvarnished feedback. Nicholl’s has revealed enough about the Barbados Court System, Director of Public Prosecutions Charles Leacock, former partners Allan Watson and Joyce Griffith, Disciplinary Committee, lawyers in the system and much more to be sued if true. It is a damning indictment of the system by a former insider. Also his animosity towards Vernon Smith QC, Barry Gale QC and Charles Leacock merits special mention.

The quiet from traditional media is not surprising.

BU respects the intellectual property of Nicholls, however we posted six pages to give members of the BU family who have not yet purchased some insight to three issues among several raised by Nicholls.

Pages 82 and 83 – Nicholls shares his view as a former President of the about the Disciplinary Committee. He brands it a toothless tiger.

Pages 114 and 115 – Nicholls describes Barbados Court as a ‘total mess’.

Pages 129 and 130 – He decides to leave DPP Charles Leacock to God

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591 responses to “Former Insider Attorney Philip Nicholls Exposes Barbados Court System”

  1. Simple Simon Avatar
    Simple Simon

    @NorthernObserver March 3, 2016 at 2:00 PM ” I was left to wonder how without annual audits the partners and the firm could file income tax returns?”

    So did somebody tell you that honest income tax returns were being filed?

  2. Sargeant Avatar
    Sargeant

    When the guys at Cottle Catford decided to divvy up the spoils was it clients’ funds or firm assets? Nicholls described the Discipline Committee of the Bar Association as a “toothless tiger” (tell us something we don’t know) and that’s how the lawyers like it, but he is doing tigers a disservice at least they have claws and could still inflict major damage. It is more like a mangy dog sleeping on the mat and when the thieves come in it wags its tail and goes back to sleep and the crooks help themselves to everything.

  3. NorthernObserver Avatar
    NorthernObserver

    @SS
    “So did somebody tell you that honest income tax returns were being filed?”
    No. I assume they were filing taxes. How accurate they were is another issue. Unmentioned thus far, is failure to have such a formal audit not only hid partner impropriety but squashed attempts to merge CC with Lex.

  4. de Ingrunt Word Avatar
    de Ingrunt Word

    @Northern, why would a formal audit affect their ability to file taxes. Their accounting dept. certainly provided profit and lost analysis and Bal S / Income State details.

    Were they a LLC and thus met requirements to mandate an annual audit or as a Partnership that stipulation did not apply?

    But those are the mundane questions really, answers to which sway the debate minimally.

    The fact is that the company/partnership with all its 100+ year heritage was not following business best practices for its financial operations but was yet giving costly legal advice to IBCs and others in exactly those areas.

    You also noted above that “However, again, this is a “business matter”, which seems to be Mr.N’s weakness”.

    How could business be a weakness when he was an attorney schooled in corporate law and essentially held himself as a nuts and bolts type of guy in his many years as Secretary of the BCA Board?

    What exactly am I missing that you guys have gleaned here.

  5. David Avatar
    David

    @Dee Word

    The problem you are having is that you have not read Nicholls story yet you are jumping to conclusions. You can describe him has an ass of a businessman then what? Whistle-blowers must of necessity come from the inside. We should focus on what the revelations can do to make the system better. In about 2000 he found out (by luck) that Price Waterhouse had concerns about over drawing and had written the law firm about it, just that the letter was sent to Alan Watson – the one apparently indulging – who did not share with the other partners. After a meeting Price prepared a dibly set of management statements to facilitate filing of income tax. Also of note is that internal chits/drawings were to be signed by persons in the internal accounts however Watson was overdrawing based on his sole signature with the authorized accounts persons turning a blind eye. And the story continued…

  6. Crusoe Avatar
    Crusoe

    Vincent Haynes March 3, 2016 at 5:16 PM #

    Now THAT is a headline comment that should be bookmarked and placed as a quote to note.

  7. Crusoe Avatar
    Crusoe

    Gabriel March 3, 2016 at 11:17 AM #

    So, what ARE you saying.

    Ha, ha.

  8. David Avatar
    David

    @Sargeant

    It appears that the large law farms engage in this drawings/over drawings practice, explained as an advance against salary or revenue generated by the partner – and should be netted from monthly salary to explain in simple term. Yes the drawings are made against Clients Accounts.

  9. de Ingrunt Word Avatar
    de Ingrunt Word

    Yes David having not read the book maybe my ‘complete picture’ to these Gestalt pieces taken from the excerpts and comments you and others have posted is very flawed. But I think not.

    The mind based on the experience of seeing many simialr stories with very identical parts can’t be so totally confounded as ‘different’ as this case may appear to be.

    Like you I saw these guys in action from time to time. Nicholls was always Mr Organizer in his BCA life, for example. From the excerpts he spoke of doing that as the President of the Canada-B’dos trade mission group as well.

    So when you cite from his book “but Watson was overdrawing based on his SOLE signature with the authorized accounts persons turning a blind eye” then I see and hear …Madoff. Enron. CLICO …

    This ‘whole’ Cottle mess seems very much to be ‘a sum of all those parts’. In those cases persons as close to the top as Nicholls turned a blind eye for TOO LONG before they started to ask serious questions.

    Praise the whistle blowing…condemn the prior complicit behaviour.

    As I said above I hope his actions are linked to a concerted effort to get our legal ship off the rocks.

  10. David Avatar
    David

    @Dee Word

    Sharing Nicholls view, that is all.

  11. de Ingrunt Word Avatar
    de Ingrunt Word

    @David March at 6:43 AM…I would approach your explanation of Drawings very differently, senor.

    Drawings should be taken from ‘projected profits’ obviously. So I can only see a well oiled and properly functioning partnership ‘drawing’ from ‘projected fees’ from a client a/c,

    Anything else is cavalier at best , unethical in the middle and bloody illegal at worst.

    Just saying.

  12. Well Well & Consequences Avatar
    Well Well & Consequences

    Dee Word…you really do need to read the book. The practice of drawings by partners started long before Nicholls joined the firm, read….he was a junior partner given the role of heading the firm when the 2 most senior partners retired, I questioned why he was given that role and saw that it was the beginning of him being scape goated. You may not know how tight that circle of collusion is within the legal community, from the PM, up and down aids and abetts that crap.. Nicholls describes it perfectly.

    Partners know they are supposed to reimburse the client’s accounts for any money the drew, these two named partners refused…that is when I think Nicholls should have called in the police, however, it still might have ended up with him being arrested as the scape goat because of the collusion between the DPP, police, other lawyers etc, etc….you have to read the book to understand the dynamics at play…lawyers are not and will never be successful business people, they are not trained to be business people, that is what their office manager is for….

    Many lawyers were involved in the scheme…it never entered their minds Nicholls would write a book, after all, they got away with evil practices for 50 years.

  13. Well Well & Consequences Avatar
    Well Well & Consequences

    Besides, one does not have to be a genius to know that is how everything is done assbackwards in Barbados. Instead of arresting the 2 thieves Griffith and Watson, they would vigorously pursue and arrest Nicholls for trying to get back the client’s money and exposing the theft……that is why everything has gone to hell, the suthorities refuse to arrest the real criminals on the island…they themselves need arresting, they indulge in the same nasty practices.

  14. de Ingrunt Word Avatar
    de Ingrunt Word

    @WW&C, I suspect that the pellucid concept of ‘drawings’ did indeed start “before Nicholls joined the firm”. In fact I am fairly confident it started at the dawn of time when the business model of a partnership was formulated.

    I repeat, “Drawings should be taken from ‘projected profits’. This is nothing difficult or new. All partnership operations would operate in a simialr way. Business deal is brought in; work is started and fees agreed. With high $$ fee business which stretches over an extended period (or is made to) one can reasonably expect to draw down some fees in advance to actually booking the work for said fees.

    Which ethical business man (continually) draws from the funds in the client a/c that is to meet obligations of the business deal and are NOT fees.

    I do not need to read his book to get a better perspective of any variation of that blatant unethical behaviour explained.

    You are asking ‘rhetorically’ I presume “why he was given that role” as Partner. As I am sure you know the role of partner in any firm is – as his title suggests – ‘a marriage’. It is thus a very, very carefully weighted decision.

    Conjecture all you want on why he was proposed to…and accepted the proposal…The options are many,

  15. David Avatar
    David

    @Dee Word

    You ate splitting hairs. Of course drawings is against profit. The point is that senior partner Watson controlled the partnership and this was before Nicholls and Griffith were invited to the partnership. Our concern as onlookers is that these lawyers routinely sign for drawings without proper oversight from Clients Accounts. This practice can easily morph to a Ponzi operation if the earnings of the law firm or law firm is negatively impacted.

  16. Bush Tea Avatar
    Bush Tea

    @ De Ingrunt Word
    …do yourself a favour and be ‘too busy’ to post on this subject.

  17. MoneyBrain Avatar
    MoneyBrain

    Certainly the system of drawings is dead wrong and client accounts should never be comingled with the firms money. Monies in trust should be held in an Escrow Acct.

    Forensic audit should have been ordered long ago and the miscreants either pay up or spend years in prison and charged for their rent and expenses in dey too!

  18. Well Well & Consequences Avatar
    Well Well & Consequences

    De Word, not reading the book is why you will not understand how lawyers operate how they want to in their own law firms, not how they should operate or how you think they should operate.

    That is why you have been advised multiple times to read the book, the older partners set the precedent for how draw downs are handled, rightly or wrongly…Watson being the most senior partner did not deviate from that precedent of drawing down, he deviated in not repaying the money, he did so in collusion with Griffith……that is much as I will tell you except that the Court and Court of Appeals agreed that both Watson and Griffith are 2 thieves who stole the Cottle Catford client’s money…..why they are both not in prison, you need to ask the attorney general, DPP, police and lawyers who protect and refuse to arrest them.

    Apart from the above, you are making a spectacle of yourself on this one, you wanted proof of what myself and others have been saying about lawyers and the legal system in Barbados, here is proof complete with assigned court numbers, cout decisions names of the thieves and the lawyers who represent them in an attempt tp pervert the course of justice….you could not ask for or get better proof than that….welll documented.

  19. David Avatar
    David

    The scam at Cottle was exposed when Hinkson and Hutchinson retired and the firms income dropped. Based on what Nicholls is saying the drawings became over drawings because partners were over the internal limits set and it appears Watson et al setup fictitious clients accounts to mask the problem hence PcW backed out as external auditor. If Dee Word wants to comment intelligently about this issue he needs to understand Nicholls perspective.

  20. Gabriel Avatar
    Gabriel

    What Barbados needs now urgently is to introduce earth shattering changes in the way lawyers account for their existence.This book has opened the eyes of the public to the shenanigans and sleight of hand back room deals hitherto unknown but suspected by many.Laws and management systems need to be introduced to stop this rot ever recurring in the normal day to day dealings with lawyers.And just as importantly,high profile civil servants must be held accountable for their perceived suspect social connections.They must be like Caesar’s wife…..above suspicion.To all you pro-independence cum republican JA’s…..would you have found the likes of EK Walcott hobnobbing at embassy functions or even governors’ functions.Naw..that ‘tyrant’,so called had too much pride in his Bajan roots.He din for sale.Now that is the type of independence one should engage fully.

  21. Bush Tea Avatar
    Bush Tea

    @ Gabriel
    That kind of PRIDE in self seems to have died….

    Look how FLOW has been able to buy our ‘serious’ news voices to promote their FALSE PR promotions and to push their foreign football?
    Soon we will see the Bishop promoting Lotto and the head of the diabetes association endorsing Coke…..

    If Stetson Babb is clearly ‘for sale’ to FLOW …how do we know who else pays to slant the OTHER news…?
    How can the voices of local football be ‘for sale’ to FLOW to promote competing English football?

    Where there is no vision…..

  22. Well Well & Consequences Avatar
    Well Well & Consequences

    I am still struggling to understand why extraditon proceedings have not been started for the most senior partner Watson, these proceedings should be already in progress prompted by DPP, attorney general, police etc…have Watson and Griffith been disbarred yet and if not, which is a question for Justice Gibson.

    Why is Watson’s wife not in prison, as she too saw it necessary to use the firm’s clients account ss her personal bank account why is she still travelling freely up and down to the US to visit her husband.

    Why is the second thieving lawyer Joyce Griffith, not in prison, all of this justifies Nicholls’ not coming forward earlier to expose all the players since they vigorously protect each other when client’s money is stolen by lawyers….he was not supposed to try to repay the clients, since stealing client’s money is the norm and supported by the authorities.

    Bushman….you have to educate all and sundry going forward that corruption is destructive as it is, they are only looking to get what they can from every deal, ignoring that they are selling themselves cheaply and their brothers and sisters even cheaper, while giving away the country for free, that is how they were socialized….education opposing that mentality, is the key to reversing that blight.

  23. Well Well & Consequences Avatar
    Well Well & Consequences

    Again I say, lawyers should not be touching client’s money, they continue to prove over and over that they lack the maturity, ethics, morals and integrity to understand that client’s money belong to the clients and should be promptly handed over to the client, not stolen to split between each other and those wicked enough to enable such behaviors.

  24. de Ingrunt Word Avatar
    de Ingrunt Word

    David with respect I will do as Bushie suggested because I am amazed at the level of amazing remarks here or example…”the older partners set the precedent for how draw downs are handled, rightly or wrongly the most senior partner did not deviate from that precedent of drawing down”. We go to business school and they detail in excruciating detail what is legal, what is ethical and what is acceptable. Yet WW&C can post such a statement re understanding theft.

    Illegality is illegality whether is was started in 1916 or 2006. I do NOT need to read this book to understand that.

    Every book of this type chronicles the malfeasance that took place and in this case David there is no need to bite your tongue with “this practice can easily morph to a Ponzi operation”.

    It WAS PLAIN and SIMPLE a PONZI scheme.

    ANY business where income is balanced against expenses and you have a system which allows “the drawings became over drawings because partners were over the internal limits set” that is straight up PONZI business…right there under the radar.

    BTW, I understand Nicholls’ perspective quite well…just can’t wrap my empathy around it. Not unlike how I couldn’t feel the pain when the Madoff sons went from wealthy to tragic denouement.

    So with that I demit. Ok Mr Bushie. Not another word.

  25. Sargeant Avatar
    Sargeant

    @David

    Thanks for the clarification, if I remember correctly Cottle Catford was one of the “white glove” law firms that was slowly dying and some of the partners who were accustomed to living high off the hog decided to help themselves by dipping into what should be funds held in Trust for clients. This is a microcosm of what is happening at the offices of the bread and fish lawyers who Sam Poochie and the duppy keep complaining about. An aside I remember the days when articling clerks at Cottle Catford were treated with reverence as it was very difficult to obtain a sinecure at the firm, the spots were reserved for those of lighter complexion or the very well connected, the middle class black Bajan clerks gravitated to Yearwood & Boyce, there was also a firm called Hutchinson & Banfield which had mostly “white” clientele. The racial stratification of Bajan society extended to the law firms and Nicholls is boasting about being the first black President of Pickwick (is that like being the first black Pres of the US?). Are we now about describing ourselves as being the first black of anything in Barbados? Wuh Valence Connell left Spartan and became the first “black” to play on Pickwick’s first eleven but Valence could pass the brown paper bag test.

    My apologies for wandering off the reservation but from my limited knowledge of law firms partnerships, partners usually contribute a set amount at the start of the firm’s financial year to cover GOE (General operating Expenses) which they will more than recover during the year from fees and other disbursements, if they don’t have the funds the law firms usually have some arrangement with their FI to provide loans to their personnel to cover that contribution (at least that is how it used to operate in TO) but times may have changed.

    The business of “lawyering” is slowly dying in Bim it is a question of supply and demand too many lawyers too few clients, so they cut corners and take chances when an unknowing sap walks in the door. Their fees are astronomically high for even the most basic transaction (see opinion about Harrison Cave) and they fleece clients when it comes to insurance settlements, (clients don’t know what they don’t know) and you would be surprised to know the names of some of those involved in that scam. It aint going to change anytime soon remember when FJ Stuart was asked about high fees? He said that yuh can’t expect to have lawyers complete a multi million dollar deal and compensate them poorly unfortunately some of these lawyers think that the ordinary Bajan is a cash cow waiting to be milked.

  26. David Avatar
    David

    @Sargeant

    You have captured it well.

    The ‘over drawings’ by the partners comprised the FI arrangement it seems. BU understands Dee Words perspective and it is why we titled the blog in the way we have. When the old partners left Cottle the declining income undermined the setup. The BA and government need to address how Clients Accounts are managed.

  27. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    The HONEST lawyers in Barbados are not doing enough to change the legal system in Barbados.

    They just keep their noses clean and earn their income honestly.

    I have been told there are three or four law firms in Barbados that are “efficient” and trustworthy.

  28. Vincent Haynes Avatar
    Vincent Haynes

    Nicholls never used the term “Black” he wrote Coloured.

  29. pieceuhderockyeahright Avatar
    pieceuhderockyeahright

    As dis ole man has said earlier on this blog and on other blogs, I, like Minister of Finance, Chris Stinkliar, cannot count so I going do annuder extrapolation on this client accunt facility that dese lawyer does be feeling up like Millie botsie

    When I use the term Mille Botsie I do not mean ole man Millington derrière but Millie who “went to Brazil”

    “Client Accunts” is peeple money deposited wid, generated through transactions by, a law firm e.g. The sale of ass ets ”

    De grandson say dat in addition to the virtual register of lawyers who is not wukking for dem clients but is wukking up pun dem clients, he suggests dat we doan gots to be too concern bout de dishonest Cottle Catfords, David Thompson en ting all we gots to do is add on a facility where de money from all client transactions is not wid no lawyers atall

    De same way dat Leroy Parris money, a next way uh saying Clico shareholders money, at de Central Bank den all money’s fuh client Accunts will be placed at de Central Bank and virtual transactions will permit the movement of sale of land, insurance settlements, and all of de usual transactions dat Philip Nicholls and he erstwhile fraternity does tief from!

    Aftah all if you can’t put you money in de central bank fuh safekeeping where else is safe.

    He say dat he fee gone up from $25,000 Bitcoin dollars to $250,000 Bitcoin dollars and also say dat a zero ent nuffing

    I cyan remember if he went to de Garrison Secondard School where Stinkliar had was did went.

    We have belaboured the Nicholls problem for a while, 78 comments to be exact, will anyone propose a solution and having proposed one, can we implement it befo de ole man dead?

  30. Amused Avatar
    Amused

    @de Ingrunt Word March 3, 2016 at 7:29 PM. I agree.

    Casting my mind back more decades than I really want to admit to at all, I have to agree that Cottle Catford was THE major solicitors firm in Barbados, right up until the end of the 60s. When I use the word “solicitors”, I mean as separate and distinct from barristers, as there was then a divide, until this divide was done away with so that the two types were became what we know today as “attorneys-at-law”. Cottles dealt mostly with land law – conveyancing, mortgages and the other documents related to that. It also dealt, in a minor way, with trademarks etc. It also had a family law aspect, mainly devoted to non-contentious divorces. It rarely, if ever, dipped its feet into criminal law, unless for the benefit of its wealthy, white clients. BUT, Cottles also boasted a corporate law practice of significant scale of which all the major banks and largest companies were clients.

    I dispute the contention that articles were the province of white only or those from monied backgrounds, although there were a fair share of those to be true. During the heyday of Cottles, until about the end of the 50s, articled clerks were paid nothing at all (and this was true of most solicitors firms) and by the 60s, they were paid not even a vaguely living wage – and articles were for five years at the time. So an articled clerk had to be able to self-support for five years. You can understand why solicitors firms were more than willing to accept anyone as an articled clerk, to do the messy, dirty and mind-numbing job of title searches in a small airless vault at the Registry and to be paid a pittance by the firms, while the firms themselves charged clients significantly for said title searches. So it really didn’t matter to solicitors firms that their turn-over of articled clerks was enormous.

    Cottles also brought in former registrar Vere Carrington to deal with estate law and this was another nice little earner for the firm. They also brought in Hickson, first as an articled clerk and Colin Williams (later Williams JA), both of whom had previously completed their law studies and were merely completing their articles and both extremely bright. These were to be the future of Cottles. But it didn’t work.

    The bottom dropped out of the Cottles barrel once plantations and sugar were no longer viable and the divide between solicitors and barristers was got rid of and Mike Simmons was caught with his hands in the cookie jar. The new wave of “leaders” like Williams and Stephen Farmer QC left Cottles and formed their own firms and many of Cottles top clients left with them and Cottles glory days were over. Carrington was gone to be replaced by people like Joyce Griffith and by the early 90s, Armstrong had both retired and died, even though perversely and amusingly he continued to be listed on Cottles letterhead as J A C Armstrong QC (deceased), which in fact was a sort of epitaph for Cottles. Freddie Clarke became the major player for corporate law, with other firms like Juris Chambers (Henry Forde), R G Mandeville (Clyde Turney) and others also being major players. In conveyancing and real property law, Cottles could no longer really compete with leaders in the field like Michael Springer QC and the like. The age of specialisation had arrived.

    Another point to be made was that until about the mid-70s, Cottles boasted an enormous client account on which they had negotiated a significantly higher interest rate from Barclays Bank for the benefit of their clients. This was also used, with clients’ permission, for Cottles to arrange significantly high-interest mortgages to the benefit of its clients.

    When Nicholls arrived, the glory-days of Cottles were over. Well and truly over. Young attorneys never stayed with the firm, using it merely as a means of gaining some experience and building a client base, before going on to bigger and better things. Nicholls must have known this. He must have been able to see the writing on the wall for Cottles, a firm going nowhere fast and under the cloud of Mike Simmons depredations from its clients account. I cannot accept that Nicholls didn’t know what was likely to be the coming scenario of a firm without a single leader in law. All the brethren knew what was likely going to happen.

    You can all draw your own conclusions from this, but mine is that there is no way that the demise of Cottle Catford could possibly be placed at the door of anyone, other than the directing minds, including Nicholls, that failed to recruit, keep, support and properly reimburse leading legal talent, failed to either bring in or maintain a significantly monied client base and generally failed to move with the times. Nicholls, among others, was a partner for quite a while and was senior partner for some years and he and his crew seemed to merely rest on the disintegrating laurels/wreaths of past centuries. Also, if Watson did indeed dip his fingers into the client account, there were recourses in both civil and criminal law that Nicholls and the other partners had recourse to and failed to avail themselves of – and they either did not notice, which is condemnable, or decided to do nothing, which is worse.

  31. Violet C Beckles Avatar
    Violet C Beckles

    As Said Before ,,,,,, CROOKS, LIARS AND SCUMBAGS, and all those who kissed up to them , When the CC and the CCJ and the CJ get done with them , Lets see who is on the side of truth and justice,

    All the lawyers in Barbados more than 9 years need to be removed, CCJ need to send NEW JUDGES AND JUSTICE TO THE BENCH,

    A TRUE BAR WILL SET UP IN JUDGEMENT OF THEM , TO SEE IF THEY NEED TO LEAVE THIS ISLAND FOR LIFE OR JAIL FOR LIFE, ALL WHAT THEY OWN WILL BE SEIZE ALL OF THEIR HOLDINGS, THEY CAN LEAVE BY AIR , WITH CLOTHS ONLY, BANK ACCOUNTS DONE, THE LAW STATES THAT YOU CAN NOT MAKE A PROFIT FROM FRAUD , WHAT WAS TAKEN MUST BE RETURNED,

    My God,BEATRICE HENRY AND VIOLET BECKLES are not sleeping,

  32. Well Well & Consequences Avatar
    Well Well & Consequences

    Sargeant did indeed capture it well, no use pretending that is not how partnerships rightly or wrongly operate, the troublesome issue is, despite the 2 lawyers losing their cases before the courts, including the appeals court, neither of them have paid back the client’s money, one ran off to the US to hide, neither of them have been arrested and I did not read about either of them being disbarred…I believe that is where is the system has become a mockery.

    At this moment I know of one attorney waiting to rob a client’s insurance settlement, he does not care about the severity of the client’s injuries, but there are those waiting equally patiently to make a very public example of this douche bag.

    I have been one on here complaining ad nauseum about what too many clents experience at the hands of those lawyers who are dishonest and was questioned about having proof, Nicholls’ book exposed the over million dollar theft of multiple client’s money. Hopefully, this level of exposure will result in an increase in honest lawyers and law firms..

    Piece…taking the clients money completely out of the hands of lawyers is the only solution. They do not need to be handling clients money to collect their fees. They are too weak and greedy, lacking self-control… to be touching client’s money.

    In addition, for a majority black nation…Barbados is too blasted color coded, it’s a black country, end of story, stop with the in between bullshit already, those who dont like being described as black, go live in Australia, New Zealand, England, Canada or the US, go tell that to Trump, he would laugh at Bizzy, Cow and all the other wannabes….idiots.

  33. de Ingrunt Word Avatar
    de Ingrunt Word

    Bang, bang…

    “The Mystery Madoff Victims Who Left $2.5 Billion on the Table”…. Almost half of the unclaimed money can be traced to a couple of Caribbean-based hedge funds. Their reason, while unknown, may have amounted to a calculated decision that any recovery on their $1.2 billion of claims would be tiny compared with what they might be forced to give back if they got tangled up in U.S. courts, according to lawyers familiar with the recovery process.

    One thing of which we can be reasonable sure…right….these mystery Hedge Funds are not in Barbados and were not client of Cottle or any of our upstanding legal beagles!

    Steeeupse!

  34. de Ingrunt Word Avatar
    de Ingrunt Word

    Oh sorry, that first paragraph is a Bloomberg News report!

    Not my post, Bushie, just a useful note for the blog; thus I have not broken my ‘demit’ promise.

    I gone.

  35. Well Well & Consequences Avatar
    Well Well & Consequences

    Amused…you will notice that no one is giving Nicholls a pass, but as you have rightfully defined in your paragraph, this should have come to light and brought into the public domain what the lawyers were doing at Cottle Catford years ago, since it’s never too late and since too many lawyers continue the same practice, let’s hope this book brings an end to illegal practices perpetrated by lawyers.

    Let’s hope more lawyers come forward to expose these kinds of thefts still presently happening in law firms.

  36. pieceuhderockyeahright Avatar
    pieceuhderockyeahright

    And with those “Amusing Words” one is able to clearly see through the entire $$69 book by Nicholls a book which De Ingrunt Word , in the face of many requests, has not yet bought

    It is interesting that Amused has given this perspective to the matter namely that Philip had every opportunity to initiate the action of calling the police FIRST

    It is also of interest that as a senior partner he, Philip would have been aware or the inner operations of Cottle Catfords

    Only you Amused would remember a detail about deceased being on a letterhead yet one might respectfully say of the fraternity as a whole that that word should be added for many of the parasites.

    You have been kind to Philip s plight and could easily have said that he was a part of the melee until it imploded and pushed him out of The elite Hinkson circle.

    It would appear that there is a seeming magnetic attraction with writing books and newspapers for disgraced lawyers Ezra Alleyne and now Philip Nicholls…

  37. Well Well & Consequences Avatar
    Well Well & Consequences

    Being a gal who likes to be fair….I give another lawyer who is presently in the same position as Nicholls found himself, one year to call the police and highlight in the public domain, all the wrongdoings of him and his partners…re stealing client’s money.

  38. Amused Avatar
    Amused

    There is one area of law that seems to be causing some confusion. That is personal injury law, usually the domain of what many call “ambulance chasers”. In most countries, including Barbados, lawyers are only too happy to work on a “no win, no fee” basis. This is because typically insurance companies will not go to the expense of defending a claim over a certain amount, but will settle for “nuisance value”. It is, unfortunately, a quick and relatively easy fee for the plaintiff’s attorney who, following international practice, will take one third of the settlement, plus disbursements, including filing fees etc.

    This practice is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it allows people who would otherwise not be able to afford legal counsel to seek redress. On the other hand, it leads to a lot of meritless and nuisance actions that inevitably drive up the insurance premiums the rest of us have to pay.

    If anyone is looking for me to suggest a solution to this state of affairs, forget it. I don’t have one and I wish that I did. The fact that most countries have not done anything about it means that people far brighter than I am, which includes the insurance companies themselves, can find no fair solution either. Therefore, to say that a lawyer is taking a chunk of an award from someone who has suffered some considerable personal injury makes no sense at all, since the injured person will have agreed before the fact to this and, based on this agreement, the lawyer will have done the work, often incurring expenses for very costly expert medical opinions to be presented in court. In terms of labour, lawyers will expend far more effort and time on these cases than would be required in other areas of civil litigation – and the money for that comes, first and foremost, out of the lawyer’s pocket. And the lawyer may end up losing out in cases where the insurance company decides to defend the action. What burns my ass is the lawyers that take cases on that they must know have not the slightest chance of success and then settle for a nuisance payment from insurance companies just so they can take a third (plus disbursements) of the settlement. But there is nothing I or anyone else can do about it if injured people without the means are to be able to seek redress.

  39. Violet C Beckles Avatar
    Violet C Beckles

    Cottle Catford is one part of the Violet Beckles massive land fraud,,a lot of the VAT money was laundered in that law firm , Deeds that were never at the land registry appeared after I push the issue , now to see there were no Clear titles at all on any level , No records of the owners ever selling to those named, Land Surveyors trespass to outline a deed for lawyers to write up, VAT money and the UDC is where all the VAT money went for 18 years, Right in to lawyers accounts acting as they were the lawyers for the sellers, Most of the sellers never seen the money once the money went to the lawyers, “” Richard Byer””” and the UDC is one of the best cases, along with the lawyer for the UDC Keith Mayers? UDC lawyer . This same lawyer have Violet Beckles land off in his name over at land tax , awaiting sales off the UDC price line along with dead lawyer Caroline Herbert , other like Ralph Thorne and his two brothers, to much to list,
    Cant wait till the CJ done cleaning this PIG pen,

    I dont say much about the lawyers on this blog for they not cross my path , but i will say seeing from all of my own points , that every news outlet, paper to net seem to have filters and spies to disinform the readers, trusting lawyers with out checking is pure madness.

    More to come on the crook ass lawyers in BIM and the court on where it was built,.
    EX CJ SIMMONS,NEED TO BE IN JAIL,PIMP TITLE NEED NOT SAVE THEM ,

  40. Well Well & Consequences Avatar
    Well Well & Consequences

    Amused. .please, let me bring you into reality, lawyers as you well know, routinely do this…. claimant ask lawyer, what is your fee for personal injury case, lawyer hems and haws for months, without replying, dont know which legal world you live in but the claimant pays for ALL medical reports, medical opinions, filing streatments etc as they well should…more months pass and lawyer refuses to tell his precentage of the claimants compensation.

    Unless the client emails the lawyer and says look…gimme the fking amount now, then ya will hear 10% comes from the insurance company and an additional anywhere from 3-15% is coming from the claimant’s compensation…but that is only if there is a settlement, if it’s a judgement the attorney is entitled to feesm of course he does not explain that to the client who when they find out will be like…gimme the fking amount before the judge makes a decision or let me tell the judge you refused to tell me and while ya at it I want the quantum of damages I been asking you for since 2014 when the defense’s medical report came back.

    But wait….first the claimant has to check with the supreme court to see if the attorney filed all the medical reports and did not withhold any medical report from the judge because not only does he/she have a working relationship with the defense attorneys, but they already made an agreement with the insurance company to screw the client out of a significant amount of the compensation.

    Amused…ya know when ya running shit by me ya better be good..lol

    BTW.. I notice neither you nor De Word think ya need to read Nicholls’ book and dont want to deal with all the other accompanying issues….what I want to know, , as you said on another thread Nicholls’ complained incessantly to any lawyer who would listen about trying to get back the client’s money from the 2 thieves, did you or any of the other attorneys advised him to call the police or offered any other solutions.

    I might not answer for a while, gotta charge this thingie.

  41. Gabriel Avatar
    Gabriel

    Can anyone recall that VOB had a programme Lawyer on Call and most of the time the moderator was Sleepy?Now Sleepy used to gnash his gumbs at the revelations of many who suffered at the hands of some lawyers.Lo and behold,Nicholls doesn’t have a kind word to say for Sleepy brother,aka uncle Vernon.Btw,Nicholls name Vernon too,so there is much to say of the closeness of the families.To think that uncle Vernon would repeatedly and unashamedly literally strangle Nicholls is an unkindly act and further Vernon removed resources his sister in law and family thought should come their way.This fellow Vernon is what the English would call a dirty piece ‘o work…..a nasty fellow indeed.Now I wonder why Sleepy did not have a word…..why he left it to the CCJ to body slam Vernon and his junior partner,but the better academic,Hal Gollop.

  42. David Avatar
    David

    Let us not forget the venerable Sir Neville Nicholls, then again he is the father.

    Let us accept that Phillip Nicholls should must have known his partner(s) were engaged in malfeasance, in fact he knowingly continued the charade when he found out from Marryshaw that PcW was unwilling to signoff the books. He tried in his ignorance to pull the company from the brink, for crissakes he borrowed millions.

  43. Well Well & Consequences Avatar
    Well Well & Consequences

    So Amused…don’t you think the other lawyers/partners in these law firms, when they see clients being treated as I described above over the course of many years should have years ago come out and let not only the police know, but also the public, so that future client’s would know which lawyer to stay the hell and well away from…why do you think these lawyers say nothing and go along to get along…in my opinion, it’s the same reason Nicholls did, but he won’t shut up, kept complaining too much, on and on, about the client’s money, so all the lowlifes who condone stealing from clients, decided to deal with him…..but the book got them now…lol

    By the way, I am praying that this lawyer to whom I allude would make the mistake that he been trying his hardest to make for the past 3 years, that SOB will see what a pissed off client looks like.

  44. Well Well & Consequences Avatar
    Well Well & Consequences

    David…I am also looking at the fact that Nicholls paid his part of the drawings and also borrowed to pay back what the 2 other lawyers stole. He is paying for their theft and ruined himself in the process, something is fundamentally wrong with the psyches of those who still blame him and not the 2 lawyers who stole the money, it’s frightening.

    That is why I believe going forward that if any client knows that their lawyer stole their money, name and shame them on social media immediately, that’s their only recourse the clients have no one to turn to in Barbados when lawyers rob them, as we are clearly seeing….Not one lawyer has said that those 2 thieving lawyers should be in prison….not one.

  45. Gabriel Avatar
    Gabriel

    Nicholls was too trusting,too naive at times and was left holding the bag.I repeat,the fact that his parents have stood shoulder to shoulder with him,says a lot for the old family values that stood Barbados in good stead over the years.Nicholls was the product of a proper home where respect and life by the golden rule were qualities inculcated from morning.
    On the other hand,his book has been an eye opener for us who remain vulnerable but now forearmed and better prepared to act in defence of our rights.

  46. David Avatar
    David

    You can often judge a man by the friends he keeps, Stephen Alleyne was a good man.

  47. pieter pieper Avatar
    pieter pieper

    As Sir Walter Scott opined ,”Oh what a tangled web we weave, when once we practise to deceive !” Surely, we’d love to think that honest lawyers would gladly come forward and expose the unethical, immoral, and blatantly dishonest practices of other members of the profession and that the CJ, Registrar, Bar Association etc. would deal firmly with such miscreants(or more correctly,bloody thieves) ! But the problem is, where can we find such a lawyer in Barbados ? You can’t even trust your own relative !The profession has indeed become a cesspool of iniquity and increases in size every year with new members being admitted to The Bar (or cesspool ) !

  48. pieter pieper Avatar
    pieter pieper

    As Sir Walter Scott opined ,”Oh what a tangled web we weave, when once we practise to deceive !” Surely, we’d love to think that honest lawyers would gladly come forward and expose the unethical, immoral, and blatantly dishonest practices of other members of the profession and that the CJ, Registrar, Bar Association etc. would deal firmly with such miscreants(or more correctly,bloody thieves) ! But the problem is, where can we find such…an honest lawyer… in Barbados ? You can’t even trust your own relative if he/she is a lawyer in Barbados !The profession has indeed become a cesspool of iniquity and increases in size every year with new members being admitted to The Bar (or cesspool ) !

  49. Violet C Beckles Avatar
    Violet C Beckles

    Gabriel March 4, 2016 at 5:54 PM #

    Nicholls was too trusting,too naive at times and was left holding the bag.I repeat,the fact that his parents have stood shoulder to shoulder with him,says a lot for the old family values that stood Barbados in good stead over the years.@@@@

    At this point they are all adults dealing with law, money , people , a Nation and at what point and who are you to trust in the field,? There are more people at the bottom than the top in this field of Life,

    If he cant trust them to hold a Nation of laws together for the people,His, their Oath of Office and the next level maybe Ministers who are lawyers,
    They are just rotten , like going to war and each person looking out for self ,
    When their way of their Life and the bad ways they have is the cost to the people of them doing their Business,
    As a matter of Fact they are Spies for England ,We already know how the Queen Behaves and this maybe a link in to her leadership,
    We can not go Republic until we clean up the mess of her Agents, DEBT is deep in the set up to fail as we look to move from Independent to Free , Making the Caribbean to look like Haiti in debt to France , so we will pay for another 50 years of slavery ,,look for the hook

  50. Nostradamus Avatar
    Nostradamus

    David, any photos of these 2 lawyers who allegedly stole the money?

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