Ot­to Car­ring­ton

Se­nior Re­porter

ot­to.car­ring­ton@cnc3.co.tt

Lead­ing voic­es in Trinidad and To­ba­go’s le­gal com­mu­ni­ty have ex­tend­ed con­grat­u­la­tions to John Je­re­mie SC on his re­turn as At­tor­ney Gen­er­al, call­ing the ap­point­ment a time­ly move to ad­dress ur­gent chal­lenges with­in the coun­try’s ju­di­cial sys­tem.

Law As­so­ci­a­tion of T&T (LATT) pres­i­dent Lynette See­baran-Suite yes­ter­day con­grat­u­lat­ed Je­re­mie on his ap­point­ment, ac­knowl­edg­ing the piv­otal role the of­fice plays and the sig­nif­i­cant chal­lenges that lie ahead for the le­gal fra­ter­ni­ty.

Speak­ing with Guardian Me­dia, See­baran-Suite em­pha­sised the im­por­tance of Je­re­mie’s ap­point­ment, high­light­ing his sub­stan­tial le­gal ex­pe­ri­ence as an as­set in ad­dress­ing long-stand­ing is­sues with­in the le­gal sys­tem, such as case back­logs and chal­lenges with­in the crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tem.

“My sin­cer­est con­grat­u­la­tions to Mr Je­re­mie, se­nior coun­sel, on this ap­point­ment,” See­baran-Suite stat­ed.

“I am con­fi­dent that, as At­tor­ney Gen­er­al, he will bring his con­sid­er­able ex­per­tise to bear on the many is­sues fac­ing the le­gal com­mu­ni­ty.”

Je­re­mie had pre­vi­ous­ly held the po­si­tion of AG un­der the Patrick Man­ning-led PNM gov­ern­ment from 2003 to 2007 and again from 2009 to 2010.

Asked if she an­tic­i­pat­ed the AG’s lead­er­ship would bring about new leg­isla­tive changes, See­baran-Suite con­veyed op­ti­mism.

“I am sure that as a re­spon­si­ble At­tor­ney Gen­er­al, he will fo­cus on these mat­ters and work to craft so­lu­tions,” she said.

“I am hope­ful that he will bring forth leg­isla­tive changes that will help to al­le­vi­ate some of the pres­sure we are fac­ing in the crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tem.”

See­baran-Suite em­pha­sised the as­so­ci­a­tion’s will­ing­ness to col­lab­o­rate with the AG’s Of­fice.

“The po­si­tion of At­tor­ney Gen­er­al is piv­otal for both the coun­try and the Law As­so­ci­a­tion,” she said. “Tra­di­tion­al­ly, the At­tor­ney Gen­er­al is seen as the tit­u­lar head of the bar, and the Law As­so­ci­a­tion will of­fer its sup­port for any pro­gres­sive leg­is­la­tion that he wish­es to in­tro­duce.”

Al­so ex­tend­ing con­grat­u­la­tions to Je­re­mie was Crim­i­nal Bar As­so­ci­a­tion (CBA) pres­i­dent Is­rael Khan, SC.

Khan said, “We are pleased to ex­press our sup­port for Prime Min­is­ter the Hon Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar SC in her wise and pru­dent se­lec­tion of John Je­re­mie. This de­ci­sion, we be­lieve, is one of great mer­it, abil­i­ty, and in­tegri­ty—a de­ci­sion that au­gurs well for the fu­ture of our coun­try. It aligns with the prin­ci­ples en­shrined in our Na­tion­al An­them, where ‘every creed and race find an equal place.’”

Fur­ther en­dors­ing Je­re­mie, Khan said, “My own in­ter­ac­tion with John Je­re­mie over the past 20 years has left me with the firm be­lief that he is a fair and fear­less at­tor­ney, pos­sess­ing im­pec­ca­ble in­tegri­ty. His strength of char­ac­ter, cou­pled with his in­de­pen­dence, po­si­tions him as an in­di­vid­ual who will serve the coun­try ad­mirably, en­sur­ing that all cit­i­zens are treat­ed just­ly and eq­ui­tably, re­gard­less of their race, class, or creed.”

Khan al­so ex­tend­ed its con­grat­u­la­tions to Pen­ne­lope Beck­les-Robin­son on her ap­point­ment by the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment as Op­po­si­tion Leader.

“We recog­nise in her the same qual­i­ties of mer­it, abil­i­ty, and in­tegri­ty, qual­i­ties that are fun­da­men­tal to her po­ten­tial fu­ture ap­point­ment as prime min­is­ter un­der our Con­sti­tu­tion,” Khan said.

He al­so con­grat­u­lat­ed Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar.

“She ex­em­pli­fies the char­ac­ter­is­tics of fair­ness and fear­less­ness, and we have full con­fi­dence that, as head of gov­ern­ment, she will do jus­tice to all our cit­i­zens, with par­tic­u­lar at­ten­tion to those who are dis­pos­sessed and mar­gin­alised,” Khan added.

The As­sem­bly of Cen­tral Le­gal Prac­ti­tion­ers (ACLP) al­so ex­tend­ed con­grat­u­la­tions to Je­re­mie, while urg­ing him to faith­ful­ly ex­e­cute the re­spon­si­bil­i­ties of his of­fice as the “tit­u­lar head of the bar” and “guardian of the rule of law.”

ACLP chair­man Kiel Tak­lals­ingh not­ed that the ap­point­ment came with­out pri­or no­tice to the as­so­ci­a­tion but ex­pressed hope that Je­re­mie would ful­fil the se­ri­ous oblig­a­tions at­tached to the po­si­tion.

“I mean, that’s all I can do at this point, we had no no­tice that it was him, et cetera. So, I didn’t con­sult with any­body,” he said.

“The most I could do is say on be­half of the as­so­ci­a­tion, con­grat­u­la­tions, and we wish him well and we hope and trust that he does what is re­quired of him as the tit­u­lar head of the bar and the guardian of the rule of law.”

As­sem­bly of South­ern Lawyers (ASL) pres­i­dent Saira Lakhan em­pha­sised the sig­nif­i­cance of Je­re­mie’s ap­point­ment, not­ing the as­so­ci­a­tion’s will­ing­ness to part­ner with him in ad­vanc­ing the le­gal land­scape of Trinidad and To­ba­go.

“We ex­tend our warmest con­grat­u­la­tions to the new­ly ap­point­ed At­tor­ney Gen­er­al of Trinidad and To­ba­go, and we recog­nise the sig­nif­i­cance of this ap­point­ment,” Lakhan said.

“As a col­lec­tive com­mit­ted to up­hold­ing the prin­ci­ples of fair­ness and in­tegri­ty, we stand ready to sup­port his ef­forts in ad­vanc­ing the le­gal sys­tem for the ben­e­fit of all cit­i­zens,” she added.