Well, that didn’t take very long, did it?
Barbados Bar Association President Andrew Pilgrim (photo above) hasn’t received a response to a letter he wrote to the Chief Justice back in July. After ten weeks of waiting for CJ Gibson to say something about the Bar Association’s concerns about the administration of justice in Barbados, Mr. Pilgrim is suggesting to his fellow lawyers that they stage a strike at the Supreme Court building. Although just about anyone who has hired a Bajan lawyer might laugh at the obvious joke (Bajan lawyers strike? What difference will it make? Will anyone notice?), the fact that the Bar Association is considering a strike shows the seriousness of the situation – at least as far as the Bar membership is concerned.
To be fair, Marston Gibson was parachuted into the position with lots of dreams about using various New York techniques for reducing the outrageous backlog in the courts – but aside from the dreams he was given no budget worth talking about. The system was broken long before Gibson arrived with civil court cases regularly taking 10, 15 and even 20 years to complete!
On the other hand Gibson could have kicked some life into the rules had he chosen to: but he is a weak and ineffective leader and manager. The time to make big changes is when the new leader first arrives. After the first year, it’s all over and the status quo wins. That’s Management 101, but I guess Marston Gibson never took that course.
And the next person to hold the position of Chief Justice will be?
Further Reading
You know the routine folks… we have to print the entire newspaper article here because the Nation is known for removing articles when the paper’s agenda changes. So please read the article at The Nation first…
FED UP with the lack of meaningful response from the Chief Justice to their concerns, the council of the Bar Association has written its members suggesting strike action at the Supreme Court Complex, among other things, as a means of getting their matters heard.
The DAILY NATION obtained a copy of the letter, signed by president Andrew Pilgrim, which was circulated to members last Friday.
The latest development is in response to a previous letter that the association wrote to Chief Justice Marston Gibson on July 30, outlining several concerns and difficulties being experienced by the Bar Association and its members with the administration of justice.
It received a response from the Chief Justice the very next day, indicating that he would provide a response to the letter in due course.
Barbados Free Press 
The attempted dialogue with the CJ did not begin in July. It began last October when the CJ promised to work with the BA to retrench delays.
Two months on the BA produced a list of reforms, fairly minor ones, but it was a start, and sent them to the CJ. The CJ did not acknowledge the letter.
Move on again three months or thereabouts and the BA President sent a justifiably snotty letter to the CJ. The CJ then sent an email to the President, equally snotty, deflecting attention from himself and levelling the finger at rapacious lawyers and the inaction of the BA Disciplinary Committee.
This email was somehow leaked to the Barbados Underground Press where it was clearly intended to cause maximum criticism of the profession and the BA – and did. It is not known who leaked the email but it may be asked why any member of the BA Committee would wish to do so and to whose advantage it was to leak it.
The email was followed up with a letter in which the CJ attempted to take the moral high ground – but still did not address any of the proposed reforms.
In July further proposed reforms were sent to the CJ who acknowledged the President’s letter with a “Dear Sir…Yours faithfully” response. And that’s where we are.
(Bajan lawyers strike? What difference will it make? Will anyone notice?),
This is the biggest joke of the Centry.
Aren’t Bajan lawyers always on strike? PAID strike??/
Having dealt with a few dozen at this point, I’m pretty sure that if any Barbados laywer was charged with professional conduct there would be insufficient evidence for a conviction 😉
If the bar association can find some lawyers with integrity they should have them all immediately run for independents and turf the BLP and DLP onto the streets where they belong.
Enough dialogue.
Go into action mode
They will never go on strike , for they would have to give back the monies taken so far .Keep dreaming, more delays in the courts for non suits.
Spoken to a lady selling papers in town, Her family fighting over land. I had to tell her that her grand mother may have paid for and build the house but dont own the land. Also told her about Ralph Thorne Quick Crook.QC.
She said he is the lawyer , Well sorry again i told her the money gone and that case will not move.. He will sit and talk and charge you , but will not file papers in court like Jennifer King
I will go by the BAR today and see if the same red woman blocking for the crook lawyers.
Also there is talk of a land swap for lands in St Lucy with Bagatelle . Sorry we also for the Plantation Deed for the 213 acres of land.sold to Beatrice Henry.