Lawyer asks police to investigate Law Association
Suspended lawyer Kenneth Munroe-Browne has not only appealed his suspension by the Law Association but has reported the Association to the Commissioner of Police for conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.
Munroe-Browne, 51, a rising star in the legal firmament, has named two Law Association officials in his letter.
This is an unusual twist in a struggle between the outspoken Munroe-Browne, who topped his class at Holborn Law College in England graduating with a master of law degree, and a certain senior lawyer over the past several years.
He was suspended along with five other lawyers in January for failing to pay fees to the Law Association for a two-year period.
By law, all lawyers are obliged to pay the Association fees to enable them to practise.
Munroe-Browne , who studied law in England and graduated from the Hugh Wooding Law School, St Augustine, in 1994, is contending that the particular senior lawyer had a vendetta against him and sought to have him disbarred from practising.
Munroe-Browne listed 11 grounds of appeal against the decision of Mr Justice Gregory Smith to suspend him, pointing out, among other things, that the judge really had no power to suspend him under section 41 of the Legal Profession Act.
He is contending that under the legislation and the Civil Proceedings Rules, 1998, Part 63.1, the High Court or Disciplinary Committee Court should consist of three judges and not one judge.
Munroe-Browne is also contending that the judge erred in applying the rules of natural justice in that he ignored certain correspondence.
He is also arguing in his appeal that Judge Smith failed to accede to his request for an adjournment and did not allow him to argue his case when his lawyer lost his spectacles and failed to deem the fines imposed as being “punitive, disproportionate, unconscionable, grossly excessive” and malicious.
Munroe-Browne is seeking “to censure and reprimand” the Association.
In an affidavit, Monroe-Browne traced the history of bad blood which began when a member of the public brought a complaint against a lawyer who is a member of the association’s disciplinary committee.
There was a clash between him and the senior lawyer who he alleged accused him of trying to settle a score with him and who was abusive during the disciplinary committee’s deliberations.
He accused the lawyer of mounting “a mafia style and orchestrated campaign” against him.
Monroe-Browne also charged that correspondence has either been “suppressed, concealed, destroyed”.
He found that a certain deadline had expired late last year and he, subsequently, wrote the Police Commissioner to investigate what he considered to be a conspiracy against him.
Tntinsider was unable to find out what was the Police Commissioner’s response to Munroe-Browne’s letter.
Munroe-Browne, a father of four, showed this newspaper a thick file of correspondence and pointed out that he has been unable to earn a living for the past three months.
Last month, he also wrote the Registrar of the High Court Evelyn Ann Petersen , informing her that he had filed an appeal against Judge Smith’s judgment and he enquired as to his status as an attorney-at-law since the does not know the length of his suspension.
This newspaper could get no word from the Association about the issue and we will be bringing readers a blow by blow account when court proceedings begin.
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One Response to “Lawyer asks police to investigate Law Association”
Thank you tnt insider for displaying the art of fearless journalism. Thanks also to the editor. Mr Jeff Hackett