Jamaicans Encouraged to Check GLC’s Website for Attorneys of Good Standing

Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the General Legal Council (GLC), Ian Jackson, is encouraging Jamaicans to utilize the Council’s website to check for practising attorneys who are in good standing.

“The website is encumbered with the necessary information. Persons may go to a section on the website titled ‘Practising Attorneys’ to see the attorneys who are in good standing. All information is provided there – you’ll find the name of the attorney, the attorney’s number and the date when the attorney was admitted to practice,” Mr. Jackson told JIS News in an interview.

Practising attorneys are those who, having been issued a practising certificate by the General Legal Council for the current calendar year, are legally entitled to carry on a private practice in Jamaica. Attorneys-at-law in the full time employment of the Government of Jamaica (who do not have a private practice) are not required to have a practising certificate.

Mr. Jackson explained that to be in good standing, the attorney must have paid the necessary practising certificate fees; submit the necessary auditing accounts on an annual basis; and must have no outstanding disciplinary action against him or her.

The website will also indicate attorneys who have been disbarred.  “There is a heading on the website called disbarred attorneys and it gives information on all the disciplinary action that the GLC has taken since its inception in 1972,” he informed.

Mr. Jackson noted that so far one attorney has been struck from the bar since the beginning of the year. This brings the number of disbarred attorneys within the last five years to 12. The records show that two were disbarred in 2014; two in 2013; four in 2012; one in 2011; and two in 2010.

Persons wishing to acquire information on attorneys can go to the GLC’s website at: www.generallegalcouncil.org.