The Tribune

By LAMECH JOHNSON

Tribune Staff Reporter

ljohnson@tribunemedia.net

COURT of Appeal President Justice Anita Allen minced no words yesterday when describing the standard of representation by counsel before the court in 2014.

Her remarks on “shoddily prepared” grounds of appeal were made during a special ceremony hosted by the appellate court to report on its success and challenges during the previous legal year.

Addressing members of the judiciary, attorneys, court officers and the press, Justice Allen said while the court endured a number of challenges in the past legal year, “of greater concern for us was the standard of representation by counsel before us.”

“Far too often, shoddily prepared and inadequate grounds of appeal were filed, skeleton arguments were late or not filed at all, there were too many applications for adjournments on the basis that counsel did not have sufficient time to prepare, or because they were in trials or some other innovative, imaginative but specious reason,” she said.

“Moreover, the court was more often than not, unassisted by the standard of skeleton arguments when they were filed, or in some cases, by the oral arguments made before the court. Very often, counsel had not read the papers before coming to court and was ignorant of the facts and the law pursuant to which the appeal was lodged.”

Neither Crown nor defence counsel were exempt from these critiques yesterday.

In early December, Hilfrant Joseph, 40, and his lawyer Romona Farquharson-Seymour, appeared in the appellate court for Joseph’s expected substantive hearing against conviction and sentence for the December 6, 2002 murder of Hawkins Hill resident Christopher Butler.

However, the lawyer, whose client is schizophrenic, told the court she had yet to receive submissions from the Crown respondents since the previous proceedings in which they had acknowledged receipt of her submissions.

When asked about this by the court, Ambrose Armbrister, who was not the appearing respondent on November 4, said: “I do not dispute the account of Mrs Farquharson but for whatever reason, the submissions were unable to be completed.”

Justice Allen noted that this was a recurrent issue with the Attorney General’s Office in that a different counsel appeared on the adjourned date and was not prepared to proceed because they did not have original possession of the appeal, which results in delays.

“This is not a good way, not an efficient way to be handling these matters,” Justice Allen said, going on to recommend that prosecutors should maintain handling of assigned cases.

“All of these appeals are important and require careful consideration and preparation,” the appellate president added.

“It’s a good suggestion but it’s way above my pay grade,” Mr Armbrister replied.

Justice Allen said she understood this but told him: “You need to impress upon your seniors that something has to change.”

Two months before this, Mrs Farquharson-Seymour’s request for additional time to prepare her client’s appeal against conviction and the death sentence for a paid execution, drew the ire of the appellate court.

While granting a seventh – and final – adjournment in the case of Anthony Clarke Sr the judges voiced their general displeasure with the constant requests by lawyers for delays at the expense of the appellants.

Though they did not blame her for the delay given that she had only been recently retained, Justice Allen said that at the time that “the public is complaining about the delays. This court is here every day, ready and willing to hear the appeals.”

Yesterday, Justice Allen said: “It cannot be emphasised enough that lawyers are absolutely indispensable to the appeal process.

“You are advisors to and advocates for clients aggrieved by decisions of the lower courts and tribunals, and more importantly, you are officers of the court and public citizens with a special responsibility for the quality of justice. In essence, you are, like us, guardians of the rule of law, guardians of the ideal that all people stand equally before the law, none above it and none below it.”

Justice Allen encouraged lawyers to “abandon this lackadaisical and cavalier approach to your responsibilities and to work harder this year to deepen your scholarship and advocacy and to maintain the quality of justice the people of the Bahamas deserve.”