Bar Association not supportive of National Intelligence Bill; Flags threat to Attorney-Client privilege

“We cannot as a Bar look to the future without addressing the elephant in the room and that is the attempts to erode legal professional privilege. This is not a problem which we face in Guyana in isolation but has affected Bars across the world. First brought about with the introduction of anti-terrorism and anti-money laundering legislation post 2001. And now etching an expanded space in Guyana through Section 41 of the National Intelligence and Security Agency Bill 2023, which if permitted to pass in its current form, in the very room in which we sit today, will exempt from suit breaches confidentiality arising from legal professional privilege,” Chase said.

Bar Association not supportive of National Intelligence Bill; Flags threat to Attorney-Client privilege

President of the Bar Association of Guyana, Attorney Pauline Chase today signaled the Association’s nonsupport for the National Intelligence and Security Agency Bill 2023 in its present form, warning that it has serious implications for the legal profession, particularly lawyer-client confidentiality.

“We cannot as a Bar look to the future without addressing the elephant in the room and that is the attempts to erode legal professional privilege. This is not a problem which we face in Guyana in isolation but has affected Bars across the world. First brought about with the introduction of anti-terrorism and anti-money laundering legislation post 2001. And now etching an expanded space in Guyana through Section 41 of the National Intelligence and Security Agency Bill 2023, which if permitted to pass in its current form, in the very room in which we sit today, will exempt from suit breaches confidentiality arising from legal professional privilege,” Chase said.

At the time, the Bar Association President was delivering remarks at a Law Week Symposium.

Speaking in the presence of the top Judicial Officers and the Attorney General Anil Nandlall, the Bar Association President said legal professional privilege, which allows clients to freely share information for their fair representation, is the bedrock of the legal profession and by extension the administration of justice.

According to Section 41 of the National Intelligence and Security Agency Bill, no civil or criminal action, suit or other proceedings for breach of confidentiality could be brought against any person, who in good faith under the proposed legislation provides or transmits information requested by the Agency or submits a report to the Agency.

In response to the concerns of the Bar Association, the Attorney General directed the Association President to a recent ruling of the Privy Council, in which it found that Jamaica’s Anti-Money Laundering Laws compelling lawyers to report financial crimes by their clients, do not contravene their constitutional rights.

“There is a recent ruling from the Privy Council from a case filed by the Jamaica Bar Association on that very issue, the apparent conflict which exists between the legal confidential duty of a lawyer to his or her client and the contradictory or the apparent contradictory obligation that the legal profession owes under different recently enacted statutes in particular the AMLCFT regime. So that ruling ought to provide some guidance on that matter,” he said.

With the Chancellor of the Judiciary, Chief Justice and the Chief Magistrate all acting, the Bar Association President also used the platform to call for substantive appointments to be made.

“In whatever era, whether past, present or future, an efficient system of justice is imperative in a society. Together with administrative trimmings, there must be a sufficient quorum of judges as dictated by sound statistical and empirical analysis to dispense justice in a timely manner,” Chase said, while noting a commitment by the Attorney General to have the Judicial Service Commission in place soon.

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