“Ambulance chasers”, or lawyers who thrive on making deals with clients for a percentage of the judgment from civil action cases, came in for some harsh criticisms from their peers on Tuesday in Parliament.

The issue was raised by Opposition spokesman on justice, Delroy Chuck, during the debate on the bill amending the Legal Profession Act to maintain certain standards in the conduct and competence of lawyers.

Chuck noted that there were many lawyers who will take on the cases of persons who suffer accidents – motor vehicle or workplace – and who are unable to pay retainers, in exchange for a percentage of the judgment awarded by the courts.

However, he said that he was concerned that these fees have gone as high as 50 per cent of the judgment in the United States, and requested some guideline from the General Legal Council (GLC) to ensure that it does not get out of hand in Jamaica.

“The General Legal Council will have to indicate that up to a certain figure, say $5 (million) to $10 million, the fee should not exceed 20-25 per cent, because if you leave it to some lawyers, they may well ask for 50 per cent,” said Chuck. “I have to say it, Mr Speaker, because I know my colleagues.” Unless you give guidelines to the attorneys, they can be unusually greedy. If you leave it to the attorneys, the poor victims who they are representing may get very little.”

Chuck was supported by the former minister of national security and justice, K D Knight, who said that contingency has given him some anxious moments.

“I feel almost embarrassed to sign some agreement that says 30 per cent of the damages will be as fees, when I know that had the person been able to pay the fees charged it would not have equated to 30 per cent of the damages. Something has to be wrong there,” said Knight.

“So, I would like to see some guidelines, myself, as to how we should operate and perhaps the suggestion of a threshold is a good suggestion,” he added. “Ten per cent up to ‘x’. It won’t cure it, but it certainly will help to reduce what I see as an imbalance.”

Assamba, Holness address slavery abolition observance

Tourism Minister Aloun Assamba and Opposition spokesman on education Andrew Holness both spoke on the issue of Jamaica’s observance of the bicentenary of the Parliamentary Abolition of the Trans-Atlantic Trade in Enslaved Africans on Tuesday.

In a statement to the House of Representatives, Assamba said that this year’s events provided the opportunity for Jamaica and the rest of the Caribbean to reflect on and explore openly our historical relationship to slavery.

“The decision to meet at Kingston Harbour (last Sunday) was quite deliberate. It was the site of the largest number of arrivals of enslaved Africans, as well as a thriving slave market,” said Assamba.

The ceremony, which took the form of funeral rites for those who died on the journey from Africa, was held to “redress a wrong that was done centuries ago – that is bury our family in the way that we should have done centuries ago and honour them for what they endured in the cause of Caribbean freedom”, Assamba explained.

“It is true that some of our ancestors received a proper burial by their families and fellow enslaved brothers and sisters, where plantation owners allowed them to do so. We even have funeral scenes in 19th century Jamaica and at least one sermon preached at one such funeral,” she said.

“However, countless others were never accorded the funeral rites to which they were entitled, whether Muslim, Christian or traditional African ceremonies,” she added.

But she said that the history and experiences of African ancestors should not only be of concern to African descended people, as “we now live in a multicultural space”.

Assamba called on Jamaicans to learn to honour each other’s ancestors and move towards a future of unity, solidarity and reconciliation.

The minister also said that while she noted the utterances of British Prime Minister Tony Blair and the Archbishop of Canterbury, acknowledging their shame for the roles of the state and church in the process, “I must remind us all that closure and, ultimately, the power of true emancipation resides exclusively in our own minds”.

In his contribution, Holness told members that recently he had the opportunity to research his own family tree and had traced his paternal origins to a slave woman named “Emma”.

“She was a slave on a plantation owned by a planter called Thompson, and, therefore, she took the name Emma Thompson,” Holness said, adding that the woman married and had children with the planter and her children married people who had migrated from Ireland or Scotland.

He said that he had also been able to trace his maternal ancestors to Indians who came to work as indentured labourers in Old Harbour about four to five generations ago.

He suggested that other Jamaicans should be reflecting on where they originated.

“I found it interesting just looking back, that I am not afraid to acknowledge that I came from a slave woman,” he said.

The abolition of the slave trade, said Holness, should be acknowledged as the first victory for black political activism. However, he criticised the fact that while British abolitionists, including Wilberforce and Pitt, are given attention in the history books, Africans such as Ottoba Cugoano are ignored.

“I speak for my generation when I say that we have not confronted slavery,” said Holness. “For many of us, our history started in 1962. The bicentenary commemoration offers us an opportunity to finally confront our past, make connections to the present and view our trajectory to the future.”

He also called for rebalancing the present with the past.

“From our slave past we have developed infrugal approaches to wealth, with a proclivity to spend rather than to save and accumulate. Jamaica has some of the lowest savings rates in the western world. We have to be rebalancing that at this time,” he said.

“From our slave past, men were not allowed to fulfil their roles as fathers. As a result, the family structure has developed in a way that is not supportive of proper social and economic development. At this time, we must rebalance that.

“We, the ones to whom great injustices have been done, we are slowly becoming desensitised and tolerant of injustices to our own. Our experience in slavery should have cemented our resolve to develop a fair, just and equitable society. Instead, we justify injustice. We must rebalance that at this time.

“During slavery, we could have blamed the slave masters or the system. Now, largely, we are a free people, but many of us still continue to blame others for our condition. We have to rebalance this.

“Slavery should have taught us, if nothing else, that none but ourselves can free our minds,” he said, adding that for those reasons, it was of symbolic importance that Parliament joined in the commemoration of the ending of the trade.

Grant proposes road network study

Government Senator Norman Grant has proposed an immediate study to examine the feasibility of placing all roads under a single, central authority.

Grant, who is also president of the Jamaica Agricultural Society, on March 23 tabled a motion in the Senate to

that effect.

The motion noted that there are over 7,000 kilometres of main roads and over 15,000 kilometres of parish council, farm, rural and housing scheme roads throughout Jamaica.

He said that a proper rural road network was vital to the Government’s embrace of agriculture and rural development as fundamental pillars of its macro economic policy, as it was needed to help farmers get their produce to markets.

He said, however, that while the rural road network was “very poor”, the agricultural sector was able to grow between 30.6 per cent and 9.2 per cent (quarterly) during 2006, achieving an increase in domestic production of 21.2 per cent compared to 2005.

Grant proposed that the Senate:

“commend the prime minister and her Government for indicating that all focus will now turn to the reconstruction, repair and upgrading of the farm and rural roads network; “recommend that the Government expedite the process and provide a timetable in which the reconstruction, upgrading and repairing will take place; and “recommend that the Government commission an immediate study to examine the feasibility of having one central road authority that develops, redevelops, manages and maintains all roads throughout Jamaica, including the country’s rural road network. And that this study clearly examines how the role of the parish councils, or any other entity, can be preserved, if necessary.”

He also suggested that the authorities reintroduce the “length man” programme for the rural road network.