President of the Guyana Bar Association, Kamal Ramkarran, on Tuesday revealed that no lawyer in Guyana has been suspended or removed from practice in more than 25 years, as he called for stronger accountability mechanisms within the legal profession to address persistent delays in the justice system.
Speaking at the opening of the Law Year 2026 during a special sitting of the Full Bench of the High Court, Ramkarran said lawyers cannot continue to complain about delayed cases while contributing to the very problem they criticise.
“We cannot complain that cases take too long to be completed if it is the lawyers who are delaying them by not being prepared and by seeking adjournments,” he said.
He pointed to what he described as a broken disciplinary framework within the Bar, noting that meaningful sanctions against attorneys have been virtually absent for decades.
“The procedure for disciplining lawyers is cumbersome,” Ramkarran said. “No lawyer has ever been the subject of proceedings, suspension or removal from the court rules in well over twenty-five years and perhaps much longer.”
Ramkarran also raised concern over the absence of any system of continuing legal education, warning that lawyers are allowed to practise indefinitely without keeping up to date with developments in the law.
“There is no system of continuing legal education in the Bar among lawyers,” he said. “If a lawyer never wanted to read another law book or judgment after law school it would be completely open for that lawyer to do so.”
He stressed that accountability must apply across the justice system and should not be viewed as an attack on any arm of the judiciary.
“Interrogating reasons and appeals also hold judges accountable,” Ramkarran said. “Questioning timelines of judgment delivery and the hearing of cases and appeals are not an attack on judiciary.”
“These things also seek to hold the system and the people operating that system accountable,” he added.
According to Ramkarran, professional standards must be enforced consistently if public confidence in the administration of justice is to be preserved.
“Systems must ensure that the highest professional standards are met by judges and lawyers and if not consequences should flow,” he said.
He warned that without a refusal to tolerate delay and inaction, inefficiencies would continue to define the system.
“The system becomes the way it does because we all accept it,” Ramkarran said.
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