News
March 27, 2009

Legal row in hands of Chief Justice

The matter involving two senior lawyers who have made accusations of unethical behaviour against each other is no longer in the hands of the St Vincent and Grenadines Bar Association.{{more}}

Without naming names, President of the Bar, high-profile defence attorney Kay Bacchus-Browne confirmed that she is aware of the matter which was made public in the Friday, March 20, edition of SEARCHLIGHT newspaper.

Bacchus-Browne acknowledged to SEARCHLIGHT that the matter was reported to the Bar Association. However, as was reported by SEARCHLIGHT in the story, headlined “Gloves off”, one of the lawyers involved copied Chief Justice of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court Sir Hugh Rawlins in a letter written last month.

“The issues are quite grave, but one of the complainants has taken it out of my hands and it is now in the hands of the Chief Justice,” Bacchus-Browne said.

She said that once complaints are made to the Bar Association about attorneys, the complaints are investigated, and all matters brought to her as President of the Bar Association since she took office in September 2007 have either been resolved or are on their way to being resolved.

According to Bacchus-Browne, when she served in different capacities on the Bar Association, she did not deal with complaints against lawyers, because that was the job of the president, so that’s the way she is functioning now.

The matter in question arose when a claimant’s lawyer was accused of unethical behaviour in a case involving a financial institution.

The lawyer being accused responded by accusing one of the financial institution’s lawyers of a damning ethical and criminal breach.

The claimant’s lawyer alleged that the attorney for the financial institution had, in a previous matter, sought to get the claimant’s lawyer’s assistance to pervert the course of justice.

The financial institution’s lawyer fired right back by denying the accusations and reporting the matter to the Chief Justice of the Organization of East Caribbean (OECS) Supreme Court.