Leonardo Blair, Staff Reporter
SEVERAL LAWYERS who originally signed up to participate in the Government's duty counsel scheme are now shunning the programme because of how long it's taking them to get paid. At least one lawyer is said to be owed more than $2 million.
However, Glen Cruickshank, executive director of the Legal Aid Council has disputed this claim.
"I know of one person who is owed some money and who has made representations for payments to be made to him; we are making efforts not only to pay him but to pay all the persons who are owed because we understand and appreciate that they have done work," he told The Sunday Gleaner.
Mr. Cruickshank further explained that he was unable to quote a specific figure of the payments owed to lawyers as he was not in office at the time of the interview.
Last December, former executive director of the Legal Aid Council, Nancy Anderson, said the Government owed lawyers who undertook legal aid cases more than $30 million and that the amount was growing monthly. Mr. Cruickshank explained on Friday, however, that the figure was less as lawyers are continuously being compensated.
In the meantime, several Corporate Area police officers are also complaining that the unavailability of the Legal Aid lawyers is now making their jobs much more difficult.
With the exception of a "few faithful lawyers," they said, it is becoming increasingly difficult to find duty counsel to represent detainees who cannot afford it. This kind of representation allows detainees to exercise their right to legal counsel as stipulated under the 1999 Legal Aid Act.
DOWN TO THREE
"I have to call 10 duty counsels to get one," explained Detective Claudia Green of the Hunts Bay CIB. "Right now we (investigators) have levelled the list (of duty counsels) down to about three who we know will come, because when you call the others it's pure excuse they have."
Officers at the Central Police Station in Downtown Kingston also pointed out that even among the minority of lawyers who show up at the police stations as duty counsel, some of them also failed to follow through with their clients until their first court appearance.
"There are only a few (duty counsels) who you can call on to come in and assist as it relates to the detainees," said Inspector Vera Thomas of the Half-Way Tree police.
"Some of them, you might inform them of this matter and the witnesses are here and they make two, three trips and the duty counsel is not present and without the lawyer or the duty counsel the identification parade can't be done," adds Inspector Thomas.
Mr. Cruickshank contends, however, that comments by the police have not been fair. "I think the police are being unfair if they say that they can't get the other lawyers at all. I could reel off a list of more then 25 lawyers islandwide who religiously do duty counsel work, whose payments are in arrears," he said.
Despite the situation, however, those Legal Aid lawyers like Donna McIntosh Brice, who take up Government assignments, say they would encourage any improvement in the Legal Aid system.
"I'd much prefer to be paid, whether by the Legal Aid people or the people who call on me to represent them. But in fact a lot of the calls that I get to go to the courts to represent people at that stage, are from the police. You ask for the reason why. It's just that I'm one of those. It's not because of the pay. I wish I had the pay, just like everyone else I have my commitments, I have the tax man to pay etcetera," she said.
