BARBADOS BAR ASSOCIATION ATTEMPTS TO SPIN FOURTH LAWYER CONVICTION BY EXCUSING DELAYS

The president of the Barbados Bar Association, in a major news article appearing today, attempted to misdirect Bajans angry at four lawyer convictions in recent years, by offering excuses, and not directly addressing the rampant attorney misconduct that has infected every aspect of commercial life in Barbados. We do not need to hear someone spin the lawyer's version of the case, in which he had absolutely no excuse, and claimed lack of knowledge of the transaction, to confuse the public.

Here is a direct verbatim quote from the article:

 “There is no rule that says that a transaction has to be handled in a particular way when it comes to the payment of the monies for the sale of property…How it is paid depends on a lot of different things; where it is coming from, if there is an old loan on the property that has to be paid off, a whole list of different things, but if one is organized the difficulties can be mitigated, but there is no hard and fast rule that is likely to be appropriate for every transaction". 

( Barbados Today, Online Edition).

 Madam, I don't care how complicated a closing is, regarding post-closing activities, it does NOT TAKE FIFTEEN YEARS to render payment to your client. A client needs to be paid with all deliberate speed, and definitely not at the convenience of the attorney. It appears that the lawyer was even investing money in real estate. Did he use the client's money to buy property ? No wonder, in the eyes of Bajans, lawyers rank below garbage collectors in the level of trust with which they are regarded.

There should have been not four convictions against lawyers for theft in Barbados, during the past four years, but four hundred. This matter is by no means settled; Stay tuned. Justice will be served, and punishment imposed.