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CJ Cheltenham questions low bar

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Submitted by Wayne Cadogan

I have to agree with every word Chief Justice Patterson Cheltenham is reported to have said regarding the quality of lawyers that are graduating each year. They are turning out these lawyers in a similar manner to how a car manufacturer turns out cars off a production assembly line.

Fifty to sixty years ago they were no more than about twenty solicitors and the pie was a population of 270 thousand people. The size of the pie is still the same but now it has to be divided among 1500 lawyers or more and still an average of 30 to 50 new lawyers are graduating each year. At this rate, soon there will be one lawyer to every 100 people.

It is no wonder that so many lawyers find themselves before the law court.


See Relevant link:

The University of the West Indies (UWI) Cave Hill Campus has stoutly defended its law programme after Chief Justice of Barbados Sir Patterson Cheltenham questioned the quality of the programme and the lawyers it was producing. 

In response to the chief justice saying the LLB programme was not rigorous enough and was “populated with a lot of super soft options to get people over the bar”, the university insisted that none of the courses offered to law students could be considered “soft”. 


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60 responses to “CJ Cheltenham questions low bar”

  1. John Avatar
    John

    The problem is UWI is churning out lawyers with no moral compass, in fact, graduates of most law schools have no moral compass and I include the Sir Hugh Wooding Law School.

    True of most centres of education and most disciplines.

    The least affected is STEM and only because STEM works on rigorous repeatable rules. But even in that there is scope for fiddling the numbers.

    Trust therefore falls by the wayside for the vast majority of young lawyers.

    The problem is that without the moral compass, these young lawyers do not challenge the theft undertaken by those who should know better.

    They are supposed to as they make their names in their profession and grow in stature with age, wisdom and maturity instead they just become willing participants with their seniors.

    So, we have KC’s, QC’s SC’s and FFingC’s that persist ad infinitum and are not challenged by young blood looking to attain the heights of respect and due diligence which the 20 or so “old conveyancers who did not make mistakes” attained.

    That check and balance disappears, and they just join the crowd of crooks. The Law becomes a source of plunder.

    All we need as proof of the complete lack of moral compass is what happened with the heads of 3 of the most prestigious universities in America.

    All were weighed in the balance in Congress and found wanting.

    What else can you expect from graduates of their universities?

    … and we think we have problems at UWI!!

  2. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    Jamaica walk out.

  3. Miller Avatar
    Miller

    @ John March 20, 2024 at 1:31 pm
    (Quote):
    So, we have KC’s, QC’s SC’s and FFingC’s that persist ad infinitum and are not challenged by young blood looking to attain the heights of respect and due diligence which the 20 or so “old conveyancers who did not make mistakes” attained.

    That check and balance disappears, and they just join the crowd of crooks. The Law becomes a source of plunder.

    (Unquote).
    ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

    But wait, Sir John, why are you so ‘hard on’ on the poor lawyers?

    You are more viciously deprecating on this evilly hallowed profession than even your sweet mystic friend called Jesus.

    But these certified practitioners of the art of legalese sleight of hand are no worse than their counterpart in the other realm of the clergy of hypocrisy.

    Now you can see why members of both houses of hypocrisy are drawn automatically to the lamp of political deceit just as inevitable as a moth to a flame.

    But don’t worry about their future. There is no place for those professions in human form in the coming world of Artificial Intelligence as ‘prescribed’ by the Age of Aquarius.

    The Age of (Dolus) Liars is slowly but surely coming to an end!

  4. John Avatar
    John

    Miller
    March 20, 2024 at 5:38 pm
    Rate This

    But wait, Sir John, why are you so ‘hard on’ on the poor lawyers?

    ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

    You ain’t seen nothing yet!!

  5. John Avatar
    John

    Court of Appeal reserves judgment in Bail Act case
    by Jenique Belgrave
    After a week of listening to submissions in favour of and against a High Court judge’s ruling that deemed part of the Bail Act unconstitutional, the Court of Appeal has reserved its decision and will make its ruling on the matter later.
    Chief Justice Sir Patterson Cheltenham along with Justices of Appeal Margaret Reifer and William Chandler made the announcement shortly after Senior Counsel Leslie Haynes, who, along with the legal team of Sir Elliot Mottley, Deputy Solicitor General Marsha Lougheed and attorneys Noah Haynes and Kashawn Wood, represent the Attorney General’s Office, made final submissions.
    The State has appealed the 2021 decision by Madam Justice Shona Griffith in the case of Lamar Antonio Jones vs the Attorney General challenging the constitutionality of Section 5(a) of the Bail (Amendment) Act 2019 which forced the courts to remand persons charged with murder or serious firearm offences for 24 months before they could qualify for bail.
    After being released on bail following 17 months of remand at Dodds in connection with matters under the Firearms Act, Jones, of Rock Avenue, Wildey, St Michael, had approached the High Court claiming that the amendment to the Bail Act was unconstitutional and infringed on six of his rights as an accused person.
    According to that section of the legislation, a person charged with murder, treason, high treason or an offence under the Firearms Act, Cap. 179, which is punishable with imprisonment for ten years or more, shall not be granted bail unless a period of 24 months has expired after that person was charged.
    In her ruling, Justice Griffith said the restriction on the right of persons charged with a firearm offence to apply for bail was unconstitutional.
    “…. It is not proportionate to a legitimate end to the maintenance of law and order, and the court is unable to find any rational connection between the restrictions and the measure that is imposed…. The court finds that the restrictions are, in fact, disproportionate, and so those restrictions are unconstitutional and void,” she had said.
    Senior Counsel Larry Smith led Jones’ team of attorneys, including Jamar Bourne and Brent Chandler, throughout the submissions to the appellate court.

  6. John Avatar
    John

    So, was it the Judge, Shona Griffith to whom the CJ was referring as not understanding Trust?

    Still don’t get the Trust angle.

  7. John Avatar
    John

    Maybe it was the “lawyers” who drafted the amendment!!

  8. John Avatar
    John

    The decision will tell us, …… if it comes!!

  9. David Avatar
    David

    The Bees have it!

    Chief Justice: Oral advocacy diminishing

    Chief Justice Sir Patterson Cheltenham is concerned that the art of oral advocacy is diminishing in Barbados’ legal system.

    He also lamented that today’s lawyer might be further disadvantaged by the fact that they do not have an opportunity to see this stock-in-trade of the profession applied by those now heralded as legal luminaries.

    Describing the perceived state of affairs as a “tragedy”, he argued that due to backlogs and time constraints in today’s court room, there was now a greater reliance on written submissions.

    “The strange situation that we have is that with such a high emphasis on written advocacy, the oral side seems to be diminishing. There is always room for people to speak well in court and I think more and more as we bring the commercial elements to managing litigation, we have scenarios where persons have 20 minutes to make their case, almost akin to what is done in the United States,” Sir Patterson said.

    Sir Patterson added: “This is simply because of the management of the court and the unrelenting number of cases which we have. We have to find techniques, some not always palatable, to get their matters through the system.”

    Pillars

    The Chief Justice was speaking at an event hosted by the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) Academy of Law to honour several pillars of the legal profession. The event which was held at the judges’ chambers of the Supreme Court, Whitepark Road, St Michael, honoured several stalwarts of the Caribbean judicial system, including Sir David Simmons, Sir Henry Forde and Sir Richard Cheltenham.

    Speaking glowingly of the three honorees, Sir Patterson said the importance of seeing in action those who mastered the skillsets of the profession, could not be understated.

    “The tragedy is that these highly distinguished and skilled practitioners, very few members of the Bar know of them or have ever seen them in action . . . These gentlemen are the genuine articles. I saw Sir David at the Bar when he had about 13 victories over Jack Dear. I saw Sir Henry who was a past master of thoroughness, who used to just ambush everyone in court and win. My brother taught me to be fearless,” he said.

    Difficult battle

    Also delivering remarks was chairman of the CCJ Academy for Law, Justice Winston Anderson, who explained that the honorees now formed part of the group of outstanding jurists across the region, which have been recognised by the CCJ since 2019. Also included in this list was former premier of Barbados, Sir Grantley Adams.

    “In 2021, we recognise pioneering Caribbean women jurists and many of these women were from Barbados. Last year we decided that we will focus on legendary legal practitioners. This group comes to about 48 practitioners but six were identified from Barbados,” Anderson said.

    “This was a very, very difficult battle as there are so many potential honorees. We had a special subcommittee responsible for identifying the six and these are representative of a larger group of people in Barbados who have made a tremendous contribution to the legal profession. So, these are by no means exhaustive of those Barbadians who we could have recognised,” he stressed.

    (CLM)

    Source: Nation

  10. 555dubstreet Avatar
    555dubstreet

    #MeToo is a social movement and awareness campaign against sexual abuse, sexual harassment, and rape culture, in which people publicise their experiences of sexual abuse or sexual harassment.

    Cases from the past are re/emerging, often against celebrities, rich, powerful, untouchable people, who often are repeat offenders, inferring that abuse has always been prevalent in all cultures, especially in various positions of trust or work such as sports, teachers, churches and in social settings like parties, wealthy networks and exploitation of young girls etc but the tables are turning for victims rights.

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