est. 2007

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A Request to Attorney at Law Joseph Serrant of BlackStone Law Firm

According to its website the BLACKSTONE Law Firm was established in 2011 and is headed by Joseph Serrant located at Strathclyde Drive, Bridgetown, Barbados. Further, the law firm advertises the expertise to represent in areas of: Property Law (conveyancing & mortgages) Law of Succession Debt Recovery Incorporation of Businesses The blogmaster writes on behalf of…

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According to its website the BLACKSTONE Law Firm was established in 2011 and is headed by Joseph Serrant located at Strathclyde Drive, Bridgetown, Barbados. Further, the law firm advertises the expertise to represent in areas of:

  • Property Law (conveyancing & mortgages)
  • Law of Succession
  • Debt Recovery
  • Incorporation of Businesses

The blogmaster writes on behalf of a concerned citizen who continues to be frustrated by the aforementioned law firm in the matter of the Estate of Ronald Griffith. Since 2013 the family of the late Ronald Griffith – represented by the Blackstone Law Firm – has been unsuccessful in processing an application of Letters of Administration with the Registrar of the Supreme Court. The blogmaster has reviewed communications between the daughter of the late Ronald Griffith and various lawyers acting on behalf of Blackstone Law Firm, including its head Joseph Serrant. For eight (8) years what was anticipated to be routine transaction has morphed to a frustrating experience for the family.

The communications the blogmaster has seen identifie the main reason for the delay as the Law Firm moving from Bridgetown to Strathclyde in 2017. Since 2013 various communications made available to Barbados Underground between family members and Blackstone Law Firm were signed by head of the law firm Joseph Serrant. Have a look at the Meet Our Experts team featured on the Blackstone Law Firm website.

The blogmaster always regrets when clients of lawyers are forced to seek remedy by sharing private matters with the public. It is obvious if we are to judge from the number of similar complaints in the public domain, a system meant to dispense timely justice continues to earn the labels of being supine and moribund. That officers of the court can be so brazen to take advantage of the public without fear of being censured is an indictment of the quality of oversight, moral and ethical fibre of our legal profession. The matter was reported to the Barbados Bar Association, no surprise.

This is a first appeal to Joseph Serrant, head of the Blackstone Law Firm to hand over the file and monies paid to date by the family of the late Ronald Griffith to allow the family to retrieve a dignified closure to the matter.

The blogmaster notes Joseph Serrant is known to the BU family on review of BU’s Lawyers in the News page.

33 responses to “A Request to Attorney at Law Joseph Serrant of BlackStone Law Firm”

  1. Donna Avatar
    Donna

    It is obvious that what is required here is a touch of insanity. Just a touch, not totally insane.

  2. Artax Avatar
    Artax

    Joseph Serrant is a thief.

    I’ll remind this forum ‘why I say so.’

    I know of a case involving a man who received injuries as a result of being involved in an accident in Mapp Hill on November 12, 2002. He retained the services of attorney-at-law, Mr. Joseph H. Serrant, of N. Keith Simmons & Co., James Fort building, Hincks Street, Bridgetown, to act on his behalf. In 2009, it was agreed between the parties involved that the insurer, Insurance Corporation of Barbados [ICB], would pay him the sum of $12,173.78 ($14,000.00 less legal fees calculated at 12.5% plus value added tax [VAT]).

    After making inquires at ICB about his settlement, he was informed two cheques were issued to his attorney…….. one which represented the payment of $12,173.78 to him, and the other for payment of legal fees to Serrant.

    When the client contacted Serrant about the payment he received on his behalf, he admitted having made representation on the client’s behalf so that the payments would be forwarded directly to him (Serrant). The reason he gave was the 12.5% he received from the settlement was insufficient for his services. Therefore, he was demanding a further $6,000.00 and would withhold the cheque until such payment was made.

    After learning the client sought the assistance of RBPF, Serrant returned the cheque to ICB and sought the services of the court to place a “stop payment” on it, under the grounds that the client owed him $6,000.00.

    He subsequently filed a writ of Settlement of 1225 of 2004, (Exhibit JH52) on October 26, 2010 in the Supreme Court of Judicature – Civil Jurisdiction, claiming the sum of $10,251.63 from ICB as bill of cost for legal business performed on the client’s behalf, so that the company would pay the amount from the accident claim directly to him.

    Included in the itemization of services Serrant claimed to have performed, was was a charge of EIGHT HUNDRED DOLLARS ($800) for telephone calls he also claimed were made in relation to the case.

    This unconscionable thief demanded $10,251.63 out of the guy’s settlement claim of $12,173.78, to leave him with a balance of $1,922.15……. when he did not suffer any injuries or pain.

    This guy wrote letters to the past and present presidents of the Bar Association, the Ombudsman, then and present Chief Justices, Sir David Simmons and Marston Gibson respectively, and did not receive any favourable responses. The few lawyers with whom he discussed the situation, said he had a good case, but none of them were willing to pursue the matter.

    And, this man, Serrant, is supposed to be a Jehovah’s Witness who was often seen in Bridgetown offering the “Watch Tower” and “Awake” to passersby.

    Had it been me in that situation, each time Serrant wakes up during the wee hours of the morning, thinking about what he should have done or not during the previous day, he would always be reminding himself, “Why I went and tief dah man money fuh? You could imagine I had two good hands and now I ent got none?”

  3. Donna Avatar
    Donna

    Aha! The mad woman has been out crazied!

    “Two hands”, you say?

    The mad woman did not need to cut of any hands. Vivid tales of the mad woman’s crazy thoughts were enough.

  4. WURA-War-on-U Avatar
    WURA-War-on-U

    Big head ugly Kerry just pulled the same shit on an injured client he threatened in the press, man suffering for nearly a decade with a family and new baby whie the piece of shit lawyer played games and strung him along to rob the money., and somehow more than half his compensation is gone…

    .these criminals for thieving lawyers in Barbados should face elimination…

  5. Nathan 'Jolly' Green Avatar
    Nathan ‘Jolly’ Green

    It happens in every island, a man once told me “never leave your house deeds with an attorney because if you die they will claim you owe them so much money they will take the house.

    My grandfather told me three people to never trust, insurance managers, bank managers, and lawyers.

    The Law Society or the Bar Association is made up with the same lawyers and they all watch each others backs.

    I suppose if lawyers are doing nasty things and are exposed the public should take note and shun them.

  6. Donna Avatar
    Donna

    And what are we doing about these lawyers? The mad woman had to go it alone. Good thing the mad woman got her madness as a weapon.

    My first lawyer handed over my file and waited for two years to receive his payment, some of which I struck off and did not pay, as he had over billed me. He immediately acquiesced.

    The second lawyer promptly handed over what was mine.

    Meanwhile I have acquaintances in various circumstances, waiting up to seven years for nothing, even after court judgments in their favour, their attorneys are billing years after the fact and refusing to hand over their files.

    These acquaintance are all sane.

  7. Donna Avatar
    Donna

    Here’s what happened to one acquaintance. She was awarded a huge settlement by the court. After months of waiting she called her attorney and inquired after her money.

    “I can’t make them pay!” was the reply. “I have to wait just like you!”

    Well… right away I knew that to be a lie. The settlement was so substantial that I knew the attorney would have moved heaven and earth to get her percentage. I told my acquaintance that the money had been paid.

    The attorney refused to take any further calls. One day a policeman friend told my acquaintance to use a fake name. She did so and was put through only to be cussed in the worst way and hung up on when she revealed her true identity.

    She managed to scrape together the money for another lawyer, he of BWA fame. This man told her that he had contacted the attorney of record for the insurance company, who told him he was no longer on the books. He said he had contacted her attorney and was told she was still awaiting payment. He said he would have to investigate further.

    I told the poor woman that all he had to do was check that no appeal had been registered and then contact the actual insurance company for payment. No further investigation was necessary.

    The fact that he was complicating matters told me that he was covering for the attorney who had handled the case and had received the hefty check.

    By that time four years had passed.
    It is now about three more years on.

    And what has that lady done? Nothing out of the ordinary.

    The mad woman is convinced that sanity is the true madness.

  8. WURA-War-on-U Avatar
    WURA-War-on-U

    Much easier to deal with them and their thieving ways these days, make sure they are known worldwide as THIEVES…make sure no one hires them on the island…make sure they can get no work anywhere in the world,,…..STARVE THEM OUT…

    .I already have their names just about everywhere…more to come for them, they are evil…from the trash lawyers in the parliament and coming on down, all they do is look for ways to STEAL FROM EVERYONE, it does not matter who, the elderly, the unborn, the young, the disabled and abled, the dead and dying, no one is safe…they are the most despicable GANG OF THIEVES to be found anywhere……….and protect each other from accountability.

  9. David Avatar
    David

    The vast majority of lawyers are good people like doctors, engineers and the regular citizen. The issue is that we have allowed a society that depend on following laws;agreements to become inefficient like many other precesses we rely on in society. We have to find a way to hold stakeholders in civil society accountable. To be effective change maker one has to wrestle with the root cause.

  10. WURA-War-on-U Avatar
    WURA-War-on-U

    Not a fella is going to believe that, not when they collude and conspire with each other to hide the crimes they commit against the population….people already know how things go with small island demons..who would sell their mothers for a paper dollar.

  11. Donna Avatar
    Donna

    Not true, David. I know of only a few good lawyers. The rest of them, even if they do not steal, cover for those who do or refuse to take over the case.

  12. Donna Avatar
    Donna

    Here’s what happened to another acquaintance or rather good friend of mine. She was “awarded” a substantial divorce “settlement” by the courts. Actually, she was only returned a portion of HER money stolen by her husband. He is a scoundrel. Her attorney called it quits, saying she was tired of the case. I am certain she KNEW that he would ignore the orders of the court. Still, she abandoned her client. Well… karma is indeed a bitch and the LADY soon died in a car accident in Miami, I think. Her knight of a husband survived.

    Her chambers are now billing my friend long after her death and years after the divorce case was completed.

    “But you should have known that wasn’t the entire bill!” is the ridiculous claim they made.

    And now they are giving her the run around for her file.

    And the Court Registry claims they cannot find record of her judgment.

    And so it is too with an earlier case she brought against a prominent, soon to be retired ex. They cannot find record of the case ever being started.

    I say, “High wind know where old house live!”

    The mad woman keeps her house in good order, with hurricane straps to boot.

  13. David Avatar
    David

    @Donna

    You are entitled to your view, however, the blogmaster has reason to intereact with many on a daily basis and will not rush to a wholesale view.

    We need to focus on the system which lawyers have to operate. When a file is misplaced at the register do you blame the lawyer? When we file complaints to BBA/Disciplinary Committee do we blame the lawyers or the policymakers. When some lawyers misuse clients money do we blame lawyers or an irrelevant system unable to tweak policy and enforce rules of engagement/enforcement. The ineffective governance is no different to what we see at play at the NIS, lack of enactment of integrity legislation etc. it suits us to cherry-pick issues and avoid the systemic matter.

  14. WURA-War-on-U Avatar
    WURA-War-on-U

    As soon as they acquire these colonial slave titles they believe the average Black person should sit back and allow themselves to be robbed by them, because the little negros tell themselves have finally arrived to slave master status……..but there is A MOUNTAIN RANGE of KARMA headed their way for what they do and did before, and no colonial title can help or spare them…

    as a matter of fact, the colonials don’t want shit to do with them…..no one trusts traitors…

  15. Donna Avatar
    Donna

    It suits whom, David? Almost EVERYBODY I meet has a bad lawyer story. As I have said many times, I walk and talk to people everywhere I go. I could go on all damn day!

    On first meeting, I come across as well-mannered, law abiding and sane. So….BOTH of my lawyers tried to feed me shit. The mad woman switched modes on their asses and that settled it. Easier to dispatch me than to mess with me. I get that often.

    Everybody else I know is still waiting.

    Steupse man, steupse!

    The system is bad and MOST of the lawyers know that and take advantage of it.

  16. Donna Avatar
    Donna

    Here’s another story for you!

    An old cousin of mine had several plots of land which she intended to sell to the tenants. All but one plot, that is. She intended to give that to her recently reconciled “adopted” daughter.

    Trusting the daughter, she signed the papers the daughter’s lawyer presented.

    I have never seen a land sale happen so fast!

    When she attempted to sell the other plots to the tenants, she discovered that ALL the land had been given to the daughter.

    IT WAS THEN THAT I UNDERSTOOD HOW THE SALE WENT THROUGH SO FAST!

    HE GOT HIS PAY OFF, I AM SURE.

    Her duppy is still awaiting the settlement of other land matters. Nope sorry, some other unrelated person has managed to claim the land. Lawyer would not drive a stroke until after she died. Then it all happened very quickly.

    The woman died in her nineties with her once outstanding house collapsing around her. No money to do repairs.

    I could go on and on and on and on and on and on and on…..

    You can stay there talking shite.

  17. TheOGazerts Avatar
    TheOGazerts

    “You are entitled to your view, however, the blogmaster has reason to intereact with many on a daily basis and will not rush to a wholesale view”

    Hopefully, the blog master is in a position where he can give each lawyer he interacts with a sum of money just to hold for him. It is quite possible that for some, the interaction may cease or become negative.

  18. David Avatar
    David

    Do you believe 100% of the 900 registered lawyers in Barbados can be described as dishonest? Let us have sensible debate about the challenge confronting us.

  19. Artax Avatar
    Artax

    I know of a case where the then 74 year old brother of a 76 year old lady put her out of a house in which she resided for over 50 years.

    The lady took care of their ailing mother without him even bothering to assist. And when their mother he did not want to contribute towards her burial.
    About a week after the funeral he went to the house and nervously told his sister he was giving her two days to vacate the house because it was his. He was even seeking to get her death certificate so he could claim the NIS funeral grant.

    He sought the services of Milton Pierce who wrote her a ‘notice to quit letter,’ in which her brother was claiming he was the landlord and wanted to repair the house.

    He subsequently hired Romario Straker who conspired with the brother, took the matter to Court after which Court marshals gave her 3 days to move although she was given 7 days. Two bombastic female marshals turned up the third day with trucks to remove the lady’s belongings and dump them.

    Unfortunately, all the lawyers she went gave her the runaround. And, tothis day she hasn’t seen any documents that proved the house was actually willed to her brother. The lawyer said he was not obligated to show her anything.

    Anyone living anywhere for over 50 years would have accumulated personal property. How fair is it for marshals to turn up a Friday afternoon, show someone a notice without her being able to hold and read it and then tell her she had until Monday to move, failing that the police will be called to forcibly remove her and her property dumped?

    These 2 bombastic women felt proud placing an elderly lady on the streets.

    I’ll bet anything that Straker or those two marshals would not have wanted their mother to be treated so unjustly.

  20. Donna Avatar
    Donna

    I see David needs another story. Maybe I’ll tell him about the shopkeeper down the road who abandoned his quest for the $10,000 dollar deposit. Or the friend who has been through three prominent lawyers and the bar association, has all the documents necessary to prove her case and cannot get a fellow to complete the case, or the other friend who has been given the run around by two lawyers for over ten years and cannot even get access to her file. Lawyer is claiming payment even though she has no proof of any work being done. Or maybe a cousin in Canada who has been trying for years to get his inheritance, the property next door to me. It once belonged to his grandmother’s brother and should be a simple matter. Been in the family for about a century.

    But no…. I return to my own experience. BOTH my lawyers tried to feed me shit until the mad woman showed her true colours.

  21. Donna Avatar
    Donna

    Not 100%. I know of a few good ones. Had one myself. He was my father’s childhood friend. Don’t know if he was good to me because of my father. My brother also had a good one, also a friend of my father’s from boyhood. I don’t know if he was good to my brother because of my father.

    I am certain there are a few I do not know but David, only a few.

  22. WURA-War-on-U Avatar
    WURA-War-on-U

    This is what is fundamentally wrong with the office of the DPP…they know when they are doing wrong and doing things ILLEGALLY, they are ALL LAWYERS but as long as it’s not something to create corruption among themselves, their friends, families and business partners, they wilfully break the law to violate some Black person’s rights just to show they got the power to do so..
    https://barbadostoday.bb/2021/07/08/court-of-appeal-sides-with-magistrate-who-dismissed-drug-charges-against-jamaican/

  23. WURA-War-on-U Avatar
    WURA-War-on-U

    The lawyers who rob people incessantly of their personal injury compensations, properties/land etc only do so because of their connections to other lawyers in government and the judiciary…..they do so because they know they can get away with it protected by the cabal in the bar association…..just because the little power they have over the people allows them to…

    that one in Lawyers in the News Jackman, just recently someone who says he robbed them was trying to get a warrant for his arrest, that was just a couple months ago and his name keeps calling in these thefts against clients…all the time, but yet they won’t lock him up……so they are protecting each other don’t care how many people they steal hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars or land and property from.

    ..the same office of the DPP would ILLEGALLY lock up a Black person but will refuse to have the police arrested on of their TIEFING lawyer friends or family..

  24. WURA-War-on-U Avatar
    WURA-War-on-U

    As usual…something is VERY WRONG at the Supreme Court and NO ONE wants to fix it….imagine that…

    ..mind you Dottin’s Academy has an ugly track record the way they treated parents when they had to choice but to withdraw students…those people should NEVER be allowed to run any school on the island ever again..

    ..but again the court system is just useless

    https://barbadostoday.bb/2021/07/10/ccj-complains-about-rulings-and-delays-again/

    “Barbados’ judicial system has come in for yet another tongue-lashing from the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ).

    The latest in a series of criticisms of the decisions made by local courts as well as lengthy delays in determining cases featured prominently when this country’s final appellate court delivered its written reasons, on July 1, for a ruling it made two months prior.

    The CCJ, in that matter, ruled against Beverly Norville, a parent who went before the Court of Appeal here to challenge her June 2015 criminal conviction by a magistrate for using abusive language, causing a disturbance and threatening to burn down Dottin’s Academy Incorporated. She had contended that the all-boys private secondary school had no authority to bring a prosecution against her.

    According to the facts of the case outlined by the CCJ, on May 19, 2009, Norville gave three months’ notice that she would be withdrawing her son as a student of Dottin’s Academy. One month later, the school expelled the child without giving her an expected refund.”

  25. WURA-War-on-U Avatar
    WURA-War-on-U

    Shame and disgrace:

    “The CCJ judge observed that the complaints were laid at the Magistrates’ Court more than three months after the event.

    “But it gets worse. Much worse. Having convicted Ms Norville, the learned Magistrate did not pass sentence then and there. The Record of Appeal discloses that no further action was taken with regard to sentencing since counsel for the accused lodged an appeal. I am unclear as to what this disclosure was meant to convey. There was certainly no legal impediment to passing sentence promptly,” Justice Anderson said.

    He, too, weighed in on the handling of the case by the Court of Appeal.

    Justice Anderson noted that judgment was delivered on October 29, 2020, well over five years after the Notice of Appeal was lodged, and more than three years after the appeal itself was heard on September 20, 2016.

    “With the greatest of respect, this delay was extravagant in a simple case such as this, especially since it was unaccompanied by any explanation or apology. That delay may well have contributed to the egregious errors particularized by my brother in his judgment.”

  26. David Avatar
    David

    Clarity needed on legal matters
    A GOVERNMENT OFTEN does things without explanation in circumstances when it should state why it is taking a certain course of action, even if it is not ground-breaking.
    This newspaper notes with interest an apparent increase in the number of civil litigations involving the state that is being led by private attorneys rather than those from either the Solicitor General’s Office or that of the Director of Public Prosecutions.
    The Government, by opting to retain private members of the Bar, has caused a greater public focus to be placed on these matters.
    We are not questioning the legal skill of Leslie Haynes QC who is leading the appeal of the Bail Act ruling by a High Court judge, and also in the civil challenge to the COVID-19 directives, nor that of Gregory Nicholls who is appearing on behalf of the Commissioner of Police.
    Attorney General Dale Marshall should indicate whether there is a weakness in litigation skills within the salaried public officers in his department, or whether they are preoccupied with more pressing issues.
    This is not the first time the state has used private lawyers to plead its case in civil matters. In the high-profile Shanique Myrie case against Barbados that eventually went all the way to the Caribbean
    Court of Justice, the then Democratic Labour Party administration used a member of the private Bar, Roger Forde QC, as its lead attorney. We are also aware that private attorneys do a substantial amount of work for the state in other Caribbean jurisdictions and this sometimes includes the services of Barbadian attorneys.
    While we have always had a sealed lid on what such appearances on behalf of the Crown have cost the taxpayers, such practices are not in keeping with the transparency required for good governance. We have been promised greater transparency under the present administration.
    Certainly, the principle of client-lawyer confidentiality of information cannot apply in these circumstances, which is why the Attorney General, given his fiduciary duty, must let the public know when these present legal matters are concluded what was the cost to the taxpayers. While we wait for such disclosures, Marshall should indicate what the state has paid and to whom for legal services over the past decade.
    The matter of to whom and why the Government offered contracts for legal services was once a non-issue and garnered little public interest. That has, however, changed amongst a more perceptive public.
    The Attorney General should appreciate that observant citizens will note the great demands the Government appears to be making of Haynes’ time and competencies having appointed him as
    chairman of the National Insurance Board, and the Electoral and Boundaries Commission.
    The Attorney General and/or the Government must not be surprised or upset when they are called to account on matters of legal process and principle. They must be prepared to answer and clarify public questions.
    While we wait for such disclosures, Marshall should indicate what the state has paid and to whom for legal services over the past decade.

    Source: Nation

  27. WURA-WAR-on-U Avatar
    WURA-WAR-on-U

    “The Attorney General should appreciate that observant citizens will note the great demands the Government appears to be making of Haynes’ time and competencies having appointed him as
    chairman of the National Insurance Board, and the Electoral and Boundaries Commission.”

    while all the personal injury cases he has BACKLOGGED in the supreme court for OVER 10 YEARS remain STUCK and UNMOVING and he is allowed to use all his time to SUCK ON TAXPAYERS…and don’t unclog the mess of a judiciary..

  28. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    @ David who wrote ” We have been promised greater transparency ”

    You have to wait until the next election campaign starts and you will get more promises.

  29. Donna Avatar
    Donna

    Wura,

    Seems your favourite lawyer is in great demand! He must be the best in Barbados.

    But who besides you is making any noise? You seem more concerned than they are, unless they have hired you to make noise for them.

    What is wrong with putting together an association of persons whose personal injury cases have been stuck in the system for more than ten years and making some noise in the public arena?

    These victims are as quiet as church mice.

  30. WURA-War-on-U Avatar
    WURA-War-on-U

    Donna…i don’t have to tell you about the broken slave mind…but in reality, i can be more devastating to them than people they can push around and threaten…if they pull any of that shit with me, the whole world will know in a NY MINUTE..

  31. WURA-War-on-U Avatar
    WURA-War-on-U

    “unless they have hired you to make noise for them.”

    when they wander too close to my orbit with their evil ways toward Black people, they get all of me….for FREE.

  32. Sage Kendal Avatar
    Sage Kendal

    Having lived abroad for several years I have had to seek legal help to sort out a number of transactions in Barbados. I contacted the Blackstone Law Company and my experience with Joseph Serrant and his team, has been positively different. The Blackstone team has been, friendly, accessible, responsive and thoroughly diligent in their professional services rendered. They have navigated the legal procedures necessary to secure positive outcomes for me, when options appeared limited. The fees charged were reasonable given the time spent on the issues which had to be worked through. My expectations for dependability and results were met.

  33. Ruth Artry Avatar
    Ruth Artry

    I have just written a formal complaint to the attorney’s regulators for them to assess and impose sanctions against the attorney Mr J Serrant’s professional misconduct. I am hoping that this will be taken seriously.
    Email: bbadisciplinarycommittee@gmail.com regarding

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