Calls for Legislative intervention for TT law students

CONGRESS of the People (COP) political leader Carolyn Seepersad Bachan has called for “immediate legislative intervention” for citizens affected by a recent High Court decision blocking them from using section 15 (1A) of the Legal Profession Act (LPA) to enter the local legal profession.

Justice Vasheist Kokaram, in a 125-page decision last Friday, deemed the section to be unconstitutional as it discriminates against non-nationals who want to practise law in TT.

The Section allowed TT law students to enter the profession without the requirement of a legal education certificate from the Hugh Wooding Law School, if they underwent six months of in-service training under a practising attorney, once they had the LPC and BPTC (Legal Practice Course and Bar Professional Training Course).

Kokaram held that the section placed an additional burden on non-nationals seeking admission to the Hugh Wooding Law School, who must write an entrance examination, or wait additional years to be called to the bar in England and then seek to get their certificate of fitness before being admitted to the local Bar.

In a media release, Seepersad-Bachan who was recently called to the local Bar said while she is not making any comment on the judgment, she notes there are several unanswered questions which need to be addressed including the “possibility of obstructed access to practice in the local courts."

“Many questions have been raised on the disenfranchisement of so many students, the investment of money and time, the many modified family and living arrangements, and above all, the possibility of obstructed access to practice in the courts of Trinidad and Tobago.”

“The travesty is further highlighted by the fact that the Hugh Wooding Law School has not been able to accommodate the majority of persons outside the Faculty of Law, UWI. In many cases an external programme would not have been the preferred option, but an option born out of necessity.”

She said the COP “sympathizes” with those perspective lawyers who will be affected by this decision and called on government, though the Attorney General, to “offer some form of redress by immediate legislative intervention.”

“We call on the Government to consider an urgent sitting of Parliament, as the impact of the timing of this judgment is crucial, given that many students are about to, or have already begun their in-service training, and others are presently preparing for being called to the Bar at the next sitting later this year.”