MEMBERS OF the Jamaican Bar Association (JBA), who last week condemned the search and removal of files from the offices of two attorneys-at-law, will be staging a protest at 2 p.m. today in the public gallery at Gordon House during the sitting of Parliament.
Hilary Phillips, president of the JBA, said the Bar Council took the decision on Friday to make a protest. "It will be a silent protest. We will be sitting in the public gallery," she said last Friday.
Howard Hamilton, Q.C., Public Defender, said yesterday that he supported the concerns raised by the JBA on the incident. Mr. Hamilton said, "It appears to fly in the face of one of the most sacred safeguards available to an accused person, namely, the sanctity of client/attorney privilege."
Last week, the police searched the offices of attorneys-at-law Ernest Smith and Hugh Thompson, following a request from the Canadian Government for documents to assist proceedings and investigations against Robert Bidwell, a 53-year-old Canadian national. Bidwell is wanted in Canada in relation to drug-related charges and money laundering. He is in custody awaiting extradition proceedings.
Smith and Thompson said the police removed a large number of files which belonged to other clients. They are representing Bidwell in the extradition proceedings.
The Bar Council of the JBA has described the incident as a breach of fundamental rights and freedom and a breach of confidentiality between lawyers and clients. The JBA says it is taking the matter to court.
A. J. Nicholson, Q.C., Minister of Justice and Attorney-General, announced last week Friday that Kent Pantry, Q.C., Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), will be going to court for a determination as to whether any breaches were committed.
Mr. Hamilton said in a press release issued yesterday that he shared the concerns expressed by the JBA on the propriety of searches by the police of the offices "but is of the view that as lawyers, the proper arena for the resolution of conflicts is the courts".
He said his office would be watching with interest, the announced intention of the DPP to seek, through the courts, "the determination as to whether any breaches were committed when the police searched the law offices of two attorneys recently."
"However, sufficient to say, that for all the reasons outlined in the resolution of the Bar Association, as to the implication of such searches, this office shares their anxieties; as, ex facie, it appears to fly in the face of one of the most sacred safeguards available to an accused person, namely the sanctity of client/attorney privilege.
"The stated purpose of the operation, I am advised, was in pursuit of evidence against, not the lawyers themselves, but of their client, Robert Bidwell," Mr. Hamilton said.
