| Some local lawyers may be suspects, witnesses in SIPT investigations | | Print | |
| Written by Richard Green/richard@fptci.com | |||
| Thursday, 17 March 2011 17:40 | |||
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Special prosecutor Helen Garlick and Attorney General Huw Shepheard are wrangling with the problem that some local lawyers are suspects or witnesses in ongoing criminal investigations, making it difficult for people to get “legal advice that’s not conflicted” from the small number of Turks and Caicos Islands lawyers. “More than one practising attorney is now implicated in this investigation, and others are likely to be material witnesses,” Garlick said in a recent letter to the bar president. The letter cautions that the Special Investigation and Prosecution Team (SIPT) may advise a few lawyers that they cannot participate in a case because of potential conflicts, citing provisions in the Legal Profession Code. “The concern that the SIPT has is that people who are coming up to be interviewed are not getting the best legal advice that they should be getting,” Shepheard said March 16 at a press conference. “It is vitally important to the interest of justice that the legal advice comes from a lawyer that doesn’t have some other ax to grind, whether he’s got ties to particular individuals or whether he’s even a potential suspect himself,” Shepheard said. “If he’s in that sort of position, he should be saying to the person who asked him to act for him, ‘Look, I can’t. There’s something that means I can’t give you unbiased advice.’” “If the local bar is trying to take a stance that is different from that, that’s rather worrying because it means that they are not looking after people who need their help,” the attorney general said. Shepheard said he cannot comment on the SIPT investigation, but he said he is considering how to make sure there are enough lawyers available to properly represent suspects and witnesses in the probe.
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