‘Everything in this country seems to be determined by your allegiances, your fraternity group and your political loyalties and not the fundamental principles of fairness, equality and equity’
By Neil Gosine
THE point that needs to be understood and articulated is that there are fundamental principles and ethical rules that need to be followed in all disciplines and they apply to the ordinary person. And the population deserves that they be followed as well.
The recent vote by the Law Association of Trinidad and Tobago (LATT) on the AG’s allegedly false or misleading representation on an affidavit causes the public trust to be destroyed. Where confidence is eroded in the LATT’s ability to be fair and unbiased, then it would be difficult for the average citizen to feel that he could get justice under their system.
The fundamental principles apply in law, finance, in medicine and in academics, in fact in all professional standards in our professional lives. The fact is that it does not matter who brings the information to the forefront that the rules have been broken and redress is absolutely necessary. It does not matter if a senior counsel highlighted this issue or if it was a janitor. Rules are rules! For example, an accountant cannot be the auditor of a company. The rules say that you cannot. So for the Law Association vote trying to plaster over the truth of what occurred with the AG issue because some “big name lawyers” well known, supposedly highly regarded figures in T&T said the the AG is “ah good boy” and have served in the industry honorably for decades is their justification for clearing him, is not acceptable at all.
Everyone knows that not being truthful to the court or using the excuse of forgetting doesn’t fly in our legal system. Before you sign any affidavit, the final sentence in that legal document is that you must swear that the above is true. So you shouldn’t sign it if you know you forgot the details or weren’t truthful in your affidavit. An error or lapse in memory is not a defense. The average citizen would not be able to get off as easily as the AG did under the jurisdiction of the Law Association in a court of law.
How can we be expected to have faith in the Law Association or their legal fraternity when we see they are held to a different standard than the average citizen? It was hard to believe that an average citizen could ever get a “fair shake” under this system but now we see it for sure that only the elite, persons of high holding positions in the government and friends of the current administration have the ability to be forgiven for their trespasses.
Everything in this country seems to be determined by your allegiances, your fraternity group and your political loyalties and not the fundamental principles of fairness, equality and equity.
Equality is not supposed to be discriminatory, equality supposes to provide justice for all in the same manner for everyone so that every citizen is treated fairly. Clearly, this did not occur in the highly regarded legal profession under the Law Association’s purview and it doesn’t engender trust in our lawyers in the legal profession at all.
Neil Gosine is the treasurer of the UNC. He was a former Chairman of the National Petroleum Marketing Company of Trinidad and Tobago. He also holds a Masters in Business Administration MBA , BSC in Mathematics and a BA in Administrative Studies. The views and comments expressed in this column are not necessarily those of AZP News, a Division of Complete Image Limited.
Commentary: Equality in Justice
‘Everything in this country seems to be determined by your allegiances, your fraternity group and your political loyalties and not the fundamental principles of fairness, equality and equity’
THE point that needs to be understood and articulated is that there are fundamental principles and ethical rules that need to be followed in all disciplines and they apply to the ordinary person. And the population deserves that they be followed as well.
The recent vote by the Law Association of Trinidad and Tobago (LATT) on the AG’s allegedly false or misleading representation on an affidavit causes the public trust to be destroyed. Where confidence is eroded in the LATT’s ability to be fair and unbiased, then it would be difficult for the average citizen to feel that he could get justice under their system.
The fundamental principles apply in law, finance, in medicine and in academics, in fact in all professional standards in our professional lives. The fact is that it does not matter who brings the information to the forefront that the rules have been broken and redress is absolutely necessary. It does not matter if a senior counsel highlighted this issue or if it was a janitor. Rules are rules! For example, an accountant cannot be the auditor of a company. The rules say that you cannot. So for the Law Association vote trying to plaster over the truth of what occurred with the AG issue because some “big name lawyers” well known, supposedly highly regarded figures in T&T said the the AG is “ah good boy” and have served in the industry honorably for decades is their justification for clearing him, is not acceptable at all.
Everyone knows that not being truthful to the court or using the excuse of forgetting doesn’t fly in our legal system. Before you sign any affidavit, the final sentence in that legal document is that you must swear that the above is true. So you shouldn’t sign it if you know you forgot the details or weren’t truthful in your affidavit. An error or lapse in memory is not a defense. The average citizen would not be able to get off as easily as the AG did under the jurisdiction of the Law Association in a court of law.
How can we be expected to have faith in the Law Association or their legal fraternity when we see they are held to a different standard than the average citizen? It was hard to believe that an average citizen could ever get a “fair shake” under this system but now we see it for sure that only the elite, persons of high holding positions in the government and friends of the current administration have the ability to be forgiven for their trespasses.
Everything in this country seems to be determined by your allegiances, your fraternity group and your political loyalties and not the fundamental principles of fairness, equality and equity.
Equality is not supposed to be discriminatory, equality supposes to provide justice for all in the same manner for everyone so that every citizen is treated fairly. Clearly, this did not occur in the highly regarded legal profession under the Law Association’s purview and it doesn’t engender trust in our lawyers in the legal profession at all.
Neil Gosine is the treasurer of the UNC. He was a former Chairman of the National Petroleum Marketing Company of Trinidad and Tobago. He also holds a Masters in Business Administration MBA , BSC in Mathematics and a BA in Administrative Studies. The views and comments expressed in this column are not necessarily those of AZP News, a Division of Complete Image Limited.