The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune.

Under the heading, “Hundreds of court cases could be reheard” a local media recently made a news release that referenced the fact that voluntary bills of indictment (VBI) were signed by persons who were rejected by the Bahamas Bar Association (BBA). It further inferred that this has been going on for some time and has been known and accepted by the powers that be and that the validity of these actions will now be questioned and challenged by a local attorney.

To my understanding and their published statements, the BBA established in 1971, is the largest professional organisation in the country and is a regulatory organisation providing oversight to and governing all lawyers practising law in the Bahamas. Membership is mandatory for attorneys but limited to Bahamian citizens… The other printed proclamation is that with over 1,000 attorneys, the BBA works to provide oversight to the legal profession and educate the public about their rights in terms of legal representation. Recognising and accepting this, what is concerning and a bit confusing to a layman like myself, is that based on the aforementioned legal mandates of the BBA, the country’s prosecuting attorneys, defence attorneys, judges and magistrates and even the attorneys general are all members and are therefore should be knowledgeable of these facts.

Therefore the pending ruling, whatever it is, will either confirm the mandate of the BBA or contradict it by establish that the government through the office of the attorney general can circumvent the mandate. In my layman’s view, whatever the ruling is, it will have a far reaching affect. If the ruling goes one way and it is ruled that the VBI’s were illegally signed shouldn’t the BBA, as per their statement, have either informed the public of a known injustice or informed the government of its illegal actions? Alternatively, if the VBI’s are ruled to have been legally signed, then they would need to amend their mandate because obviously in certain situations attorneys are able to practice without their approval. In any event, if so, why was this situation allowed to go on for so long?

Finally, there is no secret that a most significant number of past presidents of the BBA at the expiration of their tenure, went into politics and that there is a significant opinion that the office is often used to jumpstart political careers, but I now give some unsolicited advice to the present membership and to those aspiring members looking on, that the country is sorely in need of attorneys that are unafraid to love the law and country above self promotion. That the public is patiently waiting for the most prominent professional organisation in the country to “step up to the plate”.

Just saying.

ARNOLD F BAIN

Nassau,

July 6, 2021.