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Donville Inniss is Correct, Barbados Bar Association Part of the Problem

On 30 July, Barbados Today reported on the comments of Donville Inniss and the response by the Bar Association’s (BA) new president, Liselle Weekes. BU has long stressed the necessity of removing from the BA all matters disciplinary and responsibility for the Compensation Fund. Therefore, Mr Inniss’ comments are welcome, if a little late. Mr…

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Liesel Weekes, President of the BAR
Donville Inniss, DLP Executive Member

On 30 July, Barbados Today reported on the comments of Donville Inniss and the response by the Bar Association’s (BA) new president, Liselle Weekes.

BU has long stressed the necessity of removing from the BA all matters disciplinary and responsibility for the Compensation Fund. Therefore, Mr Inniss’ comments are welcome, if a little late. Mr Inniss proposes, “…the establishment in law of a new legal services council – similar in structure and form to that of the medical council; a council that comprises of members of the legal profession and individuals who may not be attorneys; a council that is supported not just by statute, but also by the resources of the state.”

See related links:

 BU recommends to Mr Inniss that he takes a look at the Solicitors Regulatory Authority (SRA) of England and Wales, as we have repeatedly suggested. This is a body with the power to fully regulate and discipline solicitors AND to make payments out of the Compensation Fund. It is separate and distinct from the Law Society of England and Wales, which is England and Wales’ version of our BA. The SRA has not only the power to discipline and to compensate, but also to step in if they have reason to believe that a firm is not acting properly, so as to protect the consumer.

In Barbados, the qualifications to practice law and be issued a practicing certificate is a legislative decision, unlike in England and Wales where such a decision devolves on the Law Society of England and Wales. The disciplining, however, falls on the SRA. In addition, the SRA can discipline on its own authority and does not refer the matter to the courts unlike the BA that must refer matters to the Court of Appeal.

On the SRA website, it provides a list of the members of its disciplinary committee, along with a brief resume of each. And surprise, surprise! A large percentage of them are NOT lawyers. Ms Weekes’ spurious claim, “I am not certain that those persons would be in a better position to interpret what is a breach of the Code of Ethics than the attorneys-at law who currently sit on it,” is asinine. Take a look at the Code of Ethics of the BA and then honestly say if you do not think that a senior student at one of our schools could interpret them.

The cases before the disciplinary committee that enter the public conscience always involve an element of criminality, like fraud and theft. And if the DPP got off his ass and prosecuted the malefactors, would they be tried by lawyers, or a jury of their peers taken from all walks of life and professions?

Ms Weekes blathers about her favourite “get out of jail” word “perceptions”. Ms Weekes, the “perception” of the majority of Barbados agrees with Mr Inniss when he posits, “If we are truly to have a legal profession in Barbados, as opposed to just . . . a collection of lawyers, then we as a society and you as lawyers, must unshackle your minds and help create a system that not just sustains faith in your profession, but also enhances the profession.”

Mind you, if the Bar Association does not determine the qualifications by which practicing certificates are issued; has no authority over to whom they are issued; cannot constitutionally enforce membership of the BA; cannot actually discipline; and loses authority over the Compensation Fund…..what exactly is its function, other than running a website and e-mailing court lists provided by the Registrar to BA members only, instead of forcing the Registrar to e-mail the lists to all those with practicing certificates?

Ms Weekes makes a valiant effort to hide behind the useless amendments to the Legal Professions Act but fails to record just how long the BA has taken to get back to the Attorney General with its views on these useless amendments.

BU really hates to apportion credit to Donville Inniss but fair is fair. Now, let us see what he does about this matter BEFORE the next elections, so we can know whether his sentiments are real or political. For if he is genuine and “puts his money where his mouth is” he will actually have made a big difference. The icing on the cake would be Bhana being cited for a breach of the chicken wing laws of Barbados.

65 responses to “Donville Inniss is Correct, Barbados Bar Association Part of the Problem”

  1. Artax Avatar
    Artax

    The yard-fowls are at it again, exhibiting “political meandering.” They previously wrote the following about Mia Mottley:

    “ac February 19, 2013 at 5:29 PM #: Balance have you consider the woman vote those are the people that the note was intended for most men would not understand what it feels like to be MISTREATED PUBLICLY. But most WOMEN can IDENTIFY with her HUMILIATION and there is where the POWER of the VOTE LIES.”

    Perhaps by now writing: “The long and short of the stories when added shows an extension of failures from Mia years of being a govt minister attributed to social and economic legislation which is still affecting the country,” they are referring to a different Mia Mottley.

    BEWARE OF YARD FOWLS!!!!!!

  2. ac Avatar
    ac

    kuncklehead if u have a problem with my comments too bad as in both instances i spoke the truth with reference to the issue or a reply initiated by a response .
    So your ridiculous play card of presentation deeply steeped in political posturing is simply ridiculous

  3. Artax Avatar
    Artax

    AC, you would not recognize the truth if it presented itself as a 2,000 pound boulder and hit you in the head.

    There has not been any fundamental changes in the on-going saga between Owen Arthur and Mia Mottley.

    You lot are just weak political yard-fowls thinking you are doing some great service to the DLP by trying desperately to represent the shiite party in this forum, when in actuality you are involved in a “presentation deeply steeped in political posturing, which is simply ridiculous” as you, your inane contributions and, by extension, the DLP.

    The ACs are the epitome of yard-fowls.

  4. Amused Avatar
    Amused

    @Piece. You interpret me correctly. Seriously, but only for a moment as I find it impossible to be serious for too long – it takes too much energy. There are no strikes against FS’ honesty, no suggestions that he personally has ever had his snout in the public for personal gain, no evidence to impugn his personal integrity. On the other hand, he can, rightly, be accused of being distant, of not taking decisive action, etc. Mugabe, on the other hand, has a chequered history. One of bullying and intimidation, one of whips and teeth, one of being complicit in the appointment of her cousin, David Simmons, as chief justice, one of not tolerating or considering views contrary to her own. There is balance between the parties as to the appointment of unsatisfactory CJs. The Bs appointed Simmons and the Ds, Gibson. So, if you accuse one of impropriety, you have to accuse the other.

    So, faced with the choice of electing a chief executive, we are between the devil and the deep blue. It is either the honourable indecisive, or the fascist dictator. That really is all it boils down to, unless the BLP dumps the fascist wannabe dictator and appoints a new and inclusive leader who can cure the ills of a badly fractured party. In the prevailing circumstances, I opt for the honourable indecisive, for at least I know that my personal liberties, human and civic rights and the democratic process will be respected and I will not wake up in the middle of the night to find teeth and whips waiting for me outside my door.

    When the BLP under the influence of OSA gave Mugabe the push, she, uncharacteristically, responded with true dignity and this continued for a lamentably short time, until likely her whoever had been coaching her decided they had had enough and she reverted to type. You have no idea how this saddened me, since I have always been a BLP supporter. However, the BLP I supported does not exist any longer under the leadership of Mugabe and I have great fears for the rights of citizens if a BLP under the leadership and control of Mugabe is voted in.

    In the last election, I went D, because of the B’s irresponsible, spend-thrift manifesto. Unless there is another leader of the B’s for the next election, I will vote D again, because of the possibility of a dictatorship, with whips and teeth. Trust me, it is far better to have honourable indecisive caretaker, than a Mugabe in the making and a split party where MPs are either expelled or forced to leave under the threats of whipping or teeth or both.

    Now that is my position to which I am entitled, as all others are entitled to their positions and their right to vote their consciences. So no one try to enter into argument with me, because I will not respond. After all, this, to me at least, is common sense, not rocket science and the solution is solely in the hands of the BLP membership if they want my vote. And if they do not vote Mugabe out as leader, it will, to me, be evidence that the BLP has been infiltrated by Mugabe’s version of the brown shirts and are simply waiting until same brown shirts can be let loose on an executive in power. And if you think the excesses of certain of FS’ cabinet and MPs is bad, you ain’t seen nothing yet.

    I am almost convinced that the comments made by Inniss that are the subject of this report are merely political posturing, a jumping on the bandwagon of public opinion that has been educated by BU’s in-depth investigative reporting and nothing more, like the pre-election claims of FOI. It is up to Minister Inniss and the government to persuade me otherwise by taking decisive action long overdue. The first step in my view is to get rid of the Chief Justice – he is not fit for purpose, so simply correct your error and, PM, you haver abundant grounds of misconduct. One step at a time. And that is the first step.

  5. balance Avatar
    balance

    “Amused August 3, 2016 at 3:13 AM #

    @Piece. You interpret me correctly. Seriously, but only for a moment as I find it impossible to be serious for too long – it takes too much energy. There are no strikes against FS’ honesty, no suggestions that he personally has ever had his snout in the public for personal gain, no evidence to impugn his personal integrity”

    i am on record here as saying that Mr Stuart sorry Mr Sarge Prime Minister Mr Stuart is an affable gentleman but Mr Amused am i reading the above correctly given Prime MInister Stuart’s unequivocal support to proven not alleged shady person like Mr P arris and Mr Carrington and the blatant lie he told to the people of Barbados until exposed by BU with respect to the Cahill fiasco.

  6. watchman Avatar
    watchman

    @ Amused
    You need HELP

  7. Amused Avatar
    Amused

    @balance. The object of a functional press is to hold the government to account. If the government, for whatever reason, fails to do proper due diligence, then it falls to a responsible press to do it for them and let everyone know. In Barbados, we have only one organ of responsible press and that is BU, which, in my experience, whatever the blogmaster’s personal beliefs, never fails to respect all views. Especially in the UK, a functional press has been responsible for exposing a lot of serious or potentially serious government miscalculations or misinformation and so BU is doing its job in Barbados. Yet, there has only been one suggestion from either side of the House that blogs should be controlled and it did not come from FS, but from Mugabe. And that is deeply concerning and directly contrary to Latin American accords to which Barbados is a signatory and to the clear policy of the USA government as stated by Secretary of State Clinton. I would remind you also of the Munroe Doctrine (and if you do not know what that is, look it up online) and the fact that Barbados’ currency is index-linked to the US dollar, which makes the doctrine stronger, also the fact that we solicit (and receive) aid and investment from the USA and Canada, both of which frown mightily on both whips and teeth.

    So, instead of trying to divert and change my opinions, your time would be far better and more productively spent in identifying a viable and acceptable successor to Mugabe who could work in the public interest to form a cohesive and viable opposition and then promoting this person both privately and publicly through, in part, BU. As I have said, if you manage this and I agree with your choice, I will then happily switch my allegiances and vote. Otherwise, don’t waste my time or yours.

    On the subject of BU being the sole responsible press organ in Barbados, you need go no further than the BT article linked in this report. All the BT “reporter” (and I use the term in its loosest possible sense) had done is to cobble together the comments of Minister Inniss and the silly response of Ms Weekes, but has signally failed to question or impugn either party, based on solid, investigative journalism. That has been left to BU, as usual, to highlight just how similar problems have been handled in other countries. I have read online in today’s Daily Mail that the SRA has stepped in in a matter of alleged abuse of legal aid in England and Wales and will likely close the law firm concerned and strike off the senior partner and others, almost entirely due to a press campaign conducted by the Daily Mail. If that ever happens in Barbados, I am prepared to bet that it will be BU that has conducted the campaign.

    Now, do you think that Minister Inniss’ comments were right, or wrong? Are you going to consider the ramifications and benefits (or otherwise) of what he said? Or are you just going to snipe at me and indulge in political yard-fowlism so as to avoid apportioning credit to a party or politician that you do not support or like? In other words, are you going to be a part of the myriad problems which will likely endure no matter who is in office, or actively seek and promote eventual solutions, solutions that do not infringe of our rights and democracy? A flawed democracy even with alleged pornography publication, I can take; but a dictatorship with whips and teeth, I cannot and will not support. The ball is in your court. You can get @watchman to help you.

  8. Gabriel Avatar
    Gabriel

    @Watchman
    Persons such as you refer to,are addicted to hypocrisy of the highest order.He is beyond needing help.A rotting,stinking carcass no doubt experiencing a resurrection from Westbury cemetery.Fukcvr.

  9. Piece Uh De Rock Yeah Right - INRI Avatar
    Piece Uh De Rock Yeah Right – INRI

    @ Amused

    Nothing will come of Pornville’s pronouncements regarding regulating the legal fraternity.
    Pornville may be arrogant and have a puffed up sense of his own importance, but he is not an idiot. Relatively speaking.

    Pornville understands that he gets “points” for shouting about the legal community to the general public but, to actually do something about it is to bring the active ire of 1000+ lawyers.

    Pornville understands that who they wil, if vexed, prosecute a campaign against him that he, since he is part of the “board dickey” brigade, the “all talk and no action” group, would loose.

    People, in the rank and file, average bajans, are not privy to, nor do they care about, what PM Arthur shared with an restricted group about Mugabe.

    Hindsight being 20/20, one can understand why though.

    As you said, the prospect of “waking a night and having teeth and whips waiting outside your door”, caused him to restrain Mugabe, what other option did he have? Was exposing her an option? seriously was destroying the BLP an option? and in that option was destroying the country an option?

    Ironically, the very thing that OSA sought to safeguard, the reputation of Barbados as a democracy, an exemplar of a democratically elected government, has been destroyed by these other nitwits.

    These are not despots in the classic Mao Zedong sense, but fecundities of such paucity of mind that OSA safeguards the reputation from dictator and secret police and taped conversations of ALL CITIZENS, INCLUDING PRIME MINISTER and Lime management complicity, and powerful sniper weapons disappearing through the disturbing intervention of the Office of the Commissioner of Police and we have another set of dufuses who have destroyed our financial reputation

    Two statuses democracy intact but failed state at 50 years of independence OR despot Mugabe in charge, Brown Shirts at our doors, Agard Extremism en vogue and untested economic policies?

    We are screwed aren’t we?

    We bajans are educated BUT WE ARE NOT SMART and like Artaxerxes said while speaking of legion about that 2,000 lbs Boulder “even if the brown shirt dictatorship that Mugabe intends were to appear as 2500 AK 47s in the series of bunkers at plantations/strategic locations island wide” as long as we can wuk up at Kadooment the following year, who gives a shy*e?

    Owen reeled her in because and the options presented were very straightforward “stop or …”

    How many people in Barbados see Mugabe, Amused? Seriously!!

    Let me give a hypothetical Amused. Say the first staccato of AK47 bullets goes off, all uh we brekking for the safety of our houses. We will crouch there until our need to find food brings us out to the supermarkets which will themselves be unsure as to whether to open.

    Remember this is a hypothetical scenario enacted on a 166 sq. mi. country whose economy is hypothetically based on tourism and financial services. The hypothetical is presents a number of “unmanageables” doesn’t it?

    Simply put. Disorder and disruption which not one can rule over, not even Mugabe!!

    But what if we do not use overt despotism with extremes, Amused?

    Let me then describe a “limited scope” despotism, which prescribes putting all your people in various positions? Head of the Elections and Boundaries Commission, the Police, the Ports, Telecommunications companies, remember that the chairman of the board still controls the General manager, the Trade Unions, the Credit unions and, pretty soon, as per the observations of De Word, add in a few lock ups, lawsuits, disappearances euphemisms for extrajudicial killings, a la ever enthusiastic Royal Barbados Police Force and we arrive at despotic rule, in whatever form or fashion

    This is the Mugabe that a few of us see, the one that Owen reigned in, for a short while, whom he released from his control, during his unwise knight’s gambit ef up, and whom we, as piece uh draughts players, with no knowledge of chess, are seeing the resurgence of our own brown shirt brigade wearing white.

    Fecundities one side and Mugabe the other.

    @ Balance

    I borrowed this image below from the Internet to ask you this question.

    As one looks at the chart below, from left to right, and it dawns on one that these teardrops are lives we are talking about, I just wanted to know if the despot on the left was “less despotic” than the on on far right? given the ratio of his numbers?

    http://i.imgur.com/eyUnc.jpg

  10. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    Detention ?

    A PROMINENT ATTORNEY AT LAW is claiming that a number of “high-profile persons of interest” were held by police over the busy Crop Over weekend as a guise in an effort to maintain law and order between last weekend’s Foreday Morning Jam, and Monday’s Grand Kadooment.

    http://www.nationnews.com/nationnews/news/84123/days-custody#sthash.TD5Ud5Cn.dpuf

  11. Amused Avatar
    Amused

    @Piece. Cannot disagree with a single word.

    @Hants. Not knowing the names of those arrested, am not able to comment. However, reflect that “high profile” has a very large application and the presence in the whole mix of Andrew Pilgrim (for whom I have the highest respect and admiration) would tend to suggest that “high profile” might mean that they have either been charged or investigated on some criminal charges. The world right now is a very unsettled place, with killings in Europe and the Middle East and in the good old US of A. Security forces worldwide are on special alert and unwilling to take any chances. So, if Andrew’s “high profile” clients are as I suspect they are and the Police, on good grounds, determined that they might be a security breach and cause public harm, then the Police will have acted preventatively. So, until Andrew names these people and the Police identify their grounds, we should all reserve our opinions. After all, none of us, either for ourselves or our families or, indeed, anyone, want to be harmed. I wonder if the Nation has itself investigated to establish the identities of those held, or are they, as usual, merely regurgitating what they are told without question or further enquiry. Maybe a member of the BU family would like to identify those held for us. In any case, “as a guise” is an allegation that has to be proved in law.

  12. Piece Uh De Rock Yeah Right - INRI Avatar
    Piece Uh De Rock Yeah Right – INRI

    By the way I commenced typing this at 5 and ended this at almost 10 a.m.

    The pauses.

    You know something Amused?

    If you or I were people who sucked pooch then we could come here and apply our lips liberally to Fumbles and his asses asses, (there has to be some profoundness in that triple configuration of asses)

    Or if we were men who sucked balls and board doggies we could equally suck Mugabe s augmented parts and not worry about it (speaking of which I was just wondering tangentially, if you as a man were to kiss a dildo would that make you a pretend homosexual?, just a quirk od the mind Amused, I mean it isn’t a real one is it?)

    The problem that we face is being who we are, men with balls or for my fairer comrades in arms women with parts best not named here.

    The man who runs BU has political affiliations BUT HE DOES NOT LET THOSE AFFILIATIONS COMPLEXION THE TASK!!!

    And this is why BU continues to be what it is, irrespective of all the attempts to silence it, and there are many…and David King stands there Aloneeeeee!

    So who rather what are we? What is our role? We cannon fodder? Here today yet by this evening gone, like the designer of the Kadooment band on Monday, gone forever..

    Why must me fight and more importantly What do we stand to lose in this fight?

    Barbados.

    Pornville speaks to what is a necessity, Barbados having a SRA.

    Pornville WILL NOT BRING THAT SRA INTO BEING, we all know this but the construct of which he speaks duplicitously MUST BE BROUGHT INTO BEING else our country’s legal system will slip deeper into serious disrepute.

    Pornville will not do it.

    And Mugabe WILL NOT DO IT EITHER!!

    They had 8 years and Mugabe had 14 and Amused, “by their works, ye shall know them…”

    And I doan know bout you but, as for me Mugabe in addition to falsifying their assets during that HoA fiasco, and teifing tings dem, syrup, and inflations in US currency, well if dem was a teif in relatively small tings Amused, when you get de purse strings of a cuntry, whu you going do?

    You start after a while to feel like a clitoris Amused surrounded on all sides by the lips of a fecundity, the DLP pun one side and the Troika on the side and every day looka what they doing to us

  13. watchman Avatar
    watchman

    @ Amused

    you have ONE vote and a mind capacity of flaws that get you up at 3 am, seek HELP,

  14. balance Avatar
    balance

    “Amused August 3, 2016 at 8:05 AM #

    @balance. The object of a functional press is to hold the government to account. If the government, for whatever reason, fails to do proper due diligence, then it falls to a responsible press to do it for them and let everyone know. In Barbados, we have only one organ of responsible press and that is BU, which, in my experience, whatever the blogmaster’s personal beliefs, never fails to respect all views.”

    But in the Bu forum you are holding only Ms Mottley to account for her ALLEGED sins and giving Mr Stuart a pass for his PROVEN sins to wit misleading the people who reposed trust and confidence in him to lead. Ms Mottley has not yet been afforded that opportunity so you ought to hold Mr Stuart to a higher standard. I await your beating as you continue to stumble in your illogic.

  15. Gabriel Avatar
    Gabriel

    Philip Nicholls in his book More Binding Than Marriage ‘traces the events that led to the closure of one of the oldest firms in the island because of the refusal of his former partners to repay the nearly three million dollars they have been charged by the courts with owing to the partnership’.Allan Watson and Joyce Griffith are identified in the book as those partners.
    Delvina Watson,wife of Allan Watson is also identified as the third person accused of fleecing the Client Accounts of Cottle Catford.

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