AG: Legal Profession Act ruling affecting hundreds

ATTORNEY General Faris Al-Rawi said the ruling on the Legal Profession Act (LPA) has impacted hundreds of people and the State has requested an urgent hearing.

He was speaking yesterday at a media conference held at the AGLA Tower, Ministry of the Attorney General and Legal Affairs, Port of Spain.

He reported receiving hundreds of messages from people pursuing the entry as attorneys-at-law via the Legal Profession Act which permits them to qualify in the UK and undergo a short admission process either through in-service period of six months or the six-month via the Hugh Wooding Law School.

Last week High Court judge Justice Vashiest Kokaram deemed section 15 (1A) of the LPA to be unconstitutional as it discriminates against non-nationals who want to practise law in TT. In a 125-page decision he held that the law was discriminatory in nature and placed an additional burden on a non-national to seek admission to the Hugh Wooding Law School, 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.

However, Kokaram stopped short of changing the law. This, he said, was for Parliament to do.

Kokaram was asked to declare the section of the LPA unconstitutional and strike it down by Dianne Jhamilly Hadeed, a St Lucian who was born in Grenada, and who had the required qualifications to be admitted to practise law in TT.

Al-Rawi said the judge has expressed his willingness to mediate the legislative fix to the LPA.

He stressed that approximately over 100 people per year are in this system of admission and therefore hundreds of locals or persons taking this route will be impacted.

"People would have taken loans, people who would have gone to school, people who would have put their lives on pause not in a legitimate expectation but in a reasonable expectation of coming through this route, they are all immediately affected."

He said the judge's decision is not particularly clear on people who have already qualified via this system.

"There is room for addition to the judge's declaration to ensure that people who have been admitted already via this process are not in the position where they are deemed to be without qualification. That would be a conundrum and that would cause great confusion in TT."

Al-Rawi said because of the complications of the decision he instructed the Attorney General's team led by Fayad Hosein SC to immediately approach the court and ask for an urgent hearing on the matter and to ask the judge to consider suspending his declaration. He said the matter was heard on Monday and the judge has reserved his decision to today.

"It is very likely that that decision may be the subject of a successful appeal."

He pointed out the Law Association has asked for a two-year suspension of the matter to allow people to come through the system. He said the Government's position is for a suspension of the order until the determination of the appeal.

Al-Rawi said if the judge does not agree with the request the State intends to immediately appeal.