Lawyers overcharging for small cases – Resident
The resident said on the Speak Out BVI radio show aired on July 16, 2013 that for some small cases lawyers are charging as much as $800 per hour for representation. “It’s a waste of time,” the resident said.
He felt that it must be a job to try to save your life for a lawyer to charge $800 per hour.
Host of the programme Douglas Wheatley said in places such as the United States of America there were things such as small claims court that dealt with small issues.
“I would imagine that in some of them you don’t really need a lawyer to represent you, I believe that with some of them you can represent yourself or you might be able to get legal counsel, but I think there is a limit as to what they can charge,” he said.
He noted that this system is not present in the Virgin Islands at the moment but he believed that appropriate legislation would help to control the fees that attorneys are able to charge.
Wheatley said he felt there had been a reluctance to bring the required legal practitioners’ bill before the House of Assembly for a long time and said the same situation applied in some other Caribbean countries while others already have the legislation in place.
He recalled that the bill was supposed to be introduced for a first reading when the House of Assembly (HOA) was prorogued “rather suddenly” last year.
“Any of those bills that were introduced and did not go through completion as of the date of the prorogation, they will die and you will have to start the process all over again,” Wheatley said.
He expressed hope that the bill would be brought to the HOA again before this present four year session comes to an end. “It’s been something that has been before the House and should have been passed many, many moons ago,” he stated.
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18 Responses to “Lawyers overcharging for small cases – Resident”
One is a bottom crawling scum sucker, the other one is just a fish.
IT have one in ....lord ayo don't go to she as she crazy as a bat. she going tell you one price and when she done talk to you for 20 minutes of all her problems she want to tell you another price. Then ringing off your phone to get the rest of the money for her personal use and she a do nothing with your case.
make it virtually impossible for the victim of a crime to have remediation in any matter great or small,
refuse to work for you if you are the 'good guy' (generally speaking), refuse to stand up to the 'bad guy's
or criminals - probably because they already work for them, or they really protect the government instead
of individual citizen clients. They charge so much because they know you can't afford them. Only rich
criminals or bullies can properly afford a lawyer. Lawyers do tend to like cocaine, also.