Dear Editor,
I wish to bring to the attention of the Chancellor of the Judiciary, Chief Justice and the Guyana Bar Association a matter of serious concern which is affecting clients who are hiring some lawyers here on the Essequibo Coast to represent them in their cases in the Magistrate’s court. My sister had retained a lawyer to represent her in a matter for 4 months of outstanding rent and possession of a property. A one month’s notice was served on the tenant, but he refused to receive the lawyer’s notice and pay the rent.
The lawyer then proceeded to have him summonsed, and my sister then went to Suddie and took the court marshal to serve the summons on him. Each time he refused to open the door to collect his summons, and the Magistrate was informed by the marshal about this. All the time my sister kept going to Anna Regina, Charity and Suddie Magistrate’s courts in the expectation of a hearing which was set, only to be postponed on 4 ocasions without the tenant appearing in court. Lo and behold, my sister’s lawyer took $65,000 to file and appear in court on her behalf, but he never turned up to represent her for even one day in court.
Editor, this simple court matter took 4 months without a hearing, and my sister became frustrated and decided to retain another lawyer who charged her another $65,000 without issuing any receipt although she had demanded one. After going around in circles with these lawyers and no hearing, she became even more frustrated, and in the meantime the tenant refused to turn up in court and disrespected the marshal’s order. Without ordering his arrest, the magistrate decided to go to trial without the tenant at the Anna Regina court.
When the matter was called, the tenant appeared with a lawyer who is the nephew of my sister’s lawyer.
The magistrate then asked the tenant why he had not collected the summons for the past 4 months and appeared in court; he made a lame excuse. Since he had now received it, a new date was set for hearing at Suddie. After my sister saw the tenant had retained her lawyer’s nephew, she decided to drop him and hire another lawyer.
A letter was sent to the magistrate to this effect in addition to which he was asked if he could set a new date because her lawyer was in the the High Court.
The two lawyers hadn’t learnt of this new development, and informed the magistrate that both clients had agreed to settle the matter out of court.
The magistrate then asked all parties to meet in a private room and come to a decision after which they should return to him so he could give the verdict.
In the private room my sister was intimidated by the two lawyers who demanded she allow the tenant to live in her house for 6 months and she would received 2 months’ rent instead of the 4 months which was outstanding. Her lawyer told her that she will have to get another summons for the other 2 month’s rent and place the tenant again before the court.
All parties then returned before the Magistrate with the understanding that the tenant would be given 6 months to vacate the premises and ordered to pay the rent on the first day of each month at the post office, which he failed to do. She received only 2 months’ rent of $100,000 in the presence of the Magistrate from the tenant. The Magistrate knew that the initial sum was $200,000 outstanding, but the case took 4 months to come to an end and the tenant was not paying his rent, thus adding up to 4 months’ rent.
I have heard similar stories about these 2 lawyers taking clients’ money without representing them and not issuing receipts and working in collusion.
This type of egregious overreaching behaviour by some lawyers on the coast has already poisoned the legal profession. We Essequibians are asking the Chancellor of the Judiciary and the Chief Justice to launch an investigation into how the justice system functions in the lower courts and into lawyers who are out to fleece clients of their hard-earned money.
Most of the clients who are being fleeced are single parents such as housewives who are taking care of the disabled, as well as domestic workers.
Yours faithfully,
(Name and address
provided)
