Antonnette Haughton-Cardenas will be brought to book over non-delivery of an accountant's report for 1999 and 2000. - Rudolph Brown/Chief Photographer

Attorney-at-law Antonnette Haughton-Cardenas is to face the Disciplinary Committee of the General Legal Council (GLC) because of her failure to deliver to the council a report in relation to client accounts for 1999 and 2000.

This is as a result of a United Kingdom Privy Council ruling Tuesday in favour of the GLC, which has the responsibility to discipline attorneys-at-law.

The Privy Council held that the GLC's power under Section 33 (2) of the Legal Profession Act included power to make regulations "embodying the specific requirements that it intended to make in the exercise of its general power and so ensuring that failure to comply with those requirements amounted to professional misconduct for the purposes of Section 12(4)" of the Act, which gives the GLC the power to maintain a roll of legally qualified persons as attorneys-at-law.

Regulations

In 1999, the GLC, which was established under the Legal Profession Act of 1971, made regulations prescribing the manner in which lawyers were to keep their accounts.

Section 16 of the regulation stated, "Every attorney shall, not later than six months after the commencement of any financial year (unless he or she files a declaration in the form of the First Schedule which satisfied the council that owing to the circumstances of his or her case, it is unnecessary or impractical for him or her to do so), deliver to the secretary of the council an accountant's report in respect of the financial year preceding that year."

On February 4, 2005, Michael Hylton, QC, a council member, made a complaint that Haughton-Cardenas had failed to deliver an accountant's report in respect of the years 1999-2003. In September 2005, Haughton-Cardenas delivered reports for 2001-2004.

Disciplinary Committee

In July 2006, the complaint against her came for hearing before the Disciplinary Committee. The lawyer representing Haughton-Cardenas made a preliminary submission that the GLC had no power under Section 35 of the Legal Profession Act to make Regulation 16 requiring attorneys to deliver accountants' reports to the GLC.

The Disciplinary Committee rejected the submission and Haughton-Cardenas took the matter to the Court of Appeal, which accepted her argument and allowed her appeal. The GLC took the issue to the Privy Council contending that the Court of Appeal erred in its decision.

The Privy Council held that the requirement to produce the accountant's report would be ineffective unless there were some sanctions on an attorney who failed to comply. The necessary sanction for that misconduct can then be imposed under Section 12(4) of the Legal Profession Act, the Privy Council ruled.

The appeal was allowed and the complaint against Haughton-Cardenas remitted to the Disciplinary Committee.

barbara.gayle@gleanerjm.com