VI lawyers chided for neglecting Legal Aid
“I was particularly disturbed to learn that the BVI Legal Aid office does not currently maintain a roster of attorneys because so few have volunteered their services,” Judge Ellis said, “and of those who have volunteered, the conditions which they have attached make it difficult for them to be effectively deployed to assist the very real needs that exist in the BVI.”
During her remarks yesterday, September 17, 2013 at the opening of the Law Year for the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) Court of Appeal, the High Court Judge questioned whether lawyers are no longer obliged to be responsive and to seek to provide justice, fairness, protection, balance, service and incentive to the community in which they live.
She argued that the situation was wholly unsatisfactory given the fact that the VI is a jurisdiction where practicing lawyers number in the hundreds with eleven Queen’s Counsels on record.
Judge Ellis urged attorneys by stating that rather than await the inevitable legislative compulsion, which will no doubt one day follow, members of the bar should remedy the situation as soon as possible.
“Please run, do not walk to the BVI Legal Aid office to volunteer your services,” Judge Ellis said.
“At the end of the day, we all need to know what we are aiming for, we all need to study every aspect of what we do, and we all need to make those adjustments so that we can be absolutely at the top of our game if the justice system is to be all that it can,” Judge Ellis continued.
She asked that lawyers think about their performance in achieving what is being asked of them and urged that they make small adjustments that may lead to significant gains in individual performances.
The Social Development Department's Annual Report of 2011, which was laid in the House of Assembly on December 17, 2012 by Minister for Health and Social Development Ronnie W. Skelton, stated that some law firms, despite having committed to the involvement in the legal aid programme, refuse to accept matters assigned to them by the Registrar in the manner authorised by the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU).
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21 Responses to “VI lawyers chided for neglecting Legal Aid ”
Most of the lawyers are into themselves, they do not care about protecting this society only to line their pockets and let justice and safe community go down the drain. They are quick to say "its your contry". Judge Ellis will be criticized from within the juduciary for her brutal truthfull comments.
Neither were the lawyers there when yall made your idiotic decisions and got yourselves into the mess and now want them to get yall out for free! crime has a price...it always did!
Some lawyers are not approachable as they behave as though they are above those with who are considered not in their class. Get rid of the high and mighty attitude and humble yourselves. The very people you step on and turn up your noses at are the ones you will wish one day will be knocking at your doors bringing you business.
Justice Ellis could not have said it any plainer!
It is not popular with defense lawyers because the renumeration is perceived as less than can be obtained if instructed normally. The fees are also scrutinised to stop lawyers making over inflated claims, for instance by upping the page count in cases by dubious defense fishing expeditions.
Legal aid is means tested, and on a cautionary note, this is also open to abuse. Where a test of disposable income is used, even the wealthy can make a case for legal aid assistance, when they should pay themselves.
So the scheme is not without pitfalls, but at least it tries to address the unfairness of not having good councel at court for a fair trial.
I wish more lawyers would embrace this scheme, as the rewards can be higher with the more instructions received. The personal satisfaction should also be higher when helping those who are more in need.