Archer’s family told to ‘get a lawyer’

Unable to get the money owed him by his lawyer while he was alive, paraplegic Stephen Archer’s family may have to turn to another lawyer in a bid to unlock the funds, the head of the Barbados Bar Association has said.

But while declaring that the association does not condone lawyers’ misbehaviour by lawyers, president Rosalind Smith-Millar has said it is not a “magic solution” to conflicts with clients.

When questioned specifically about Archer’s complaint, Smith-Millar said the bar association could not act solely on a newspaper report.

Archer, died two weeks ago, having never been paid by an unidentified lawyer the proceeds of a personal injury award.

Fifteen days after he celebrated his 30th birthday in 1997, a telephone pole fell on him occasioning him significant bodily injury.

The utility company fulfilled its legal obligations to Archer and paid $2.7 million in compensation to his attorney-at-law on his behalf, he had told Barbados TODAY in April.

But he revealed that he was never given a cheque nor was it ever deposited on his personal account.

Smith-Millar told Barbados TODAY it would be up to Archer’s family members to take up the matter as there was nothing the Bar could do.

She said: “If the deceased has the right to some kind of property, their estate continues to have that right.

“So whoever is entitled to Mr Archer’s estate would need to go and get legal advice as to how they can deal with the estate and the estate then would be able to do whatever is necessary.

“Now, the Bar Association per se, does not even know who the lawyer is and is not authorized to pick up people’s fire-rage.

“We cannot read a news report and launch an investigation and do something.

“We don’t know who it is; we don’t know if the things we read in the newspaper are true; we don’t have any standing to just chase after whatever the problem is.”

She said it would have been the paraplegic’s responsibility to report the matter to the Bar’s Disciplinary Committee if he believed he was not being treated fairly by his legal representative.

Smith-Millar continued: “If Mr Archer in his lifetime had realized he was not being treated properly by his attorney-at-law there is the Disciplinary Committee to whom complaints are made. They are not made to the Barbados Bar Association.

“We are not a magic solution. There is a committee, there is a process that has to be gone through.

“We do not at all condone misbehaviour by lawyers – understand that very clearly – but we cannot just read a newspaper and decide to go and investigate and launch some kind of action.

“We cannot do that because we are not authorized to do that.”

Up to his death, Archer would not name the lawyer at the centre of the dispute.
randybennett@barbadostoday.bb