The Barbados Bar Association issued a firm reminder that all attorneys wishing to work in Barbados under the new CARICOM cross-border initiative must first satisfy the established legal entry and registration requirements, regardless of their nationality.
This comes as the initiative, which grants indefinite stay and employment rights to citizens from Barbados, Dominica, St Vincent and the Grenadines, and Belize, took effect on Wednesday.
Bar President Kaye Williams told Barbados TODAY on Friday there have been queries among professionals concerning implementation of the initiative, and her association deemed it necessary to reaffirm Prime Minister Mia Mottley’s stance regarding fellow attorneys from participating countries who come here to work.
Declaring that the Bar is “deeply” committed to regional freedom of movement, Williams insisted any attorney-at-law or law firm, whether nationals of CARICOM or otherwise, seeking to establish a practice in Barbados must fulfil all existing legislative requirements for admission to the Barbados Bar.
To anchor her assertion, she quoted a statement by Mottley when the prime minister addressed the nation on Wednesday to usher in the historic free movement arrangement:
“It is not a licence for professionals to operate in Barbados without adherence to the rules and regulations governing the practice of their professions. You cannot simply walk into Barbados and set up a practice. Freedom of movement does not remove the need for persons moving into a country to comply with the legal requirements. The Professional Services Registration Act must still be followed. Lawyers, for example, will still need a valid practising certificate, as will any profession that is regulated by legislation.”
The head of the legal fraternity further quoted the Prime Minister in her reference to the Profession Trade and Business Registration Act which “must still be followed…lawyers, for example, will still need a valid practising certificate, as will any profession that is regulated by legislation.”
Williams reiterated the same procedures that local lawyers must go through to legally ply their trade here must also be honoured.
“The normal requirements for admission to the Bar will remain for attorneys, and for all professions that are regulated by legislation. It’s not only attorneys. The Profession Trade and Business Registration Act covers a wide range of professions, trades, and businesses, including attorneys-at-law, medical practitioners, accountants, architects, engineers, dental practitioners, and land surveyors as listed in the First Schedule, and pharmacists, physiotherapists, real estate agents, builders, and journalists in the Second and Third Schedules. The Act requires all persons engaged in these activities to register and pay annual licence fees to the Registrar of the Supreme Court,” she stressed.
Barbados, Dominica, St Vincent and the Grenadines, and Belize are the first to embrace the freedom of movement undertaking, which allows citizens of the four participating states to be granted indefinite stay to live, work without a permit, and to study.
These citizens are also granted all the social, educational and health benefits enjoyed by the host country’s citizens. (EJ)
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