Whether Roshi Bhadain’s tears at the press conference last week were genuine or crocodile tears staged like everything else – from the presence of his wife and daughter to the inexplicable physical support of the Jeannots – one thing is for sure: they are symptomatic of the situation of the legal profession these days. It is in a very sorry state. Lawyer Sanjay Bhuckory, in a conference organised by the Bar Council to refl ect on the profession, qualified this year as “an annus horribilis” for the men in black.

Indeed, never before have we seen men and women who are supposed to be the guarantors of our justice make the headlines for alleged illegal, unethical and unacceptable practices. The people accused are, naturally, entitled to their day in court and we have no intention of pre-empting what our courts of justice may decide. However, the fact remains that the damage has already been done and that the profession will find it increasingly hard to undo the perception – true or not – that the continuous allegations have created. This perception is made so much worse with the insane politicization of issues which are purely legal.

No sooner had the nation started getting over the shock of allegations against the attorney general than another ex-attorney general, Rama Valayden as well as another lawyer Rouben Mooroongapillay started making the headlines in connection with the Bramer Bank saga.

Then barristers started keeping our newsrooms busy. First, Roshi Bhadain was accused by his own client of having advised him to cheat and lie. Then another lawyer – Mario Jeannot’s barrister, Roubina Jadoo Jaunbocus – was accused of acting as a go-between with politicians with Jeannot proudly admitting that he had himself advised her to “roule Yatin Varma dans la farine!”(to take Yatin Varma for a ride).

Then we have a more mediatised case: that of Ravi Rutnah, who is accused of having circulated a video in 2012 of two people – according to him Michaela Harte and her husband – arguing in a hotel, insinuating that the husband may have killed the wife following the argument. By the time the truth had come out that the people on the video had nothing to do with the couple (see our cover story this week), it was too late in the day.

All this from people who are entrusted with making sure justice prevails!

Add to this a justice system which is far too slow to reassure those using it that justice is seen to be done, lawyers who use every trick in the book to keep postponing the cases they don’t want the men with the gavel to rule on, other barristers who fall sick at will and miraculously recover when convenient, some judges who are too busy making money through private arbitration to have their full energy concentrated on punishing crime and you come to the conclusion that Bhadain should not be the only one crying. We should all join in the tears, not for his plight but for the state of the profession. But while shedding these tears, let’s not forget who the real victims are. It is not the ones who are supposed to preserve the law but instead break it; it is not the ones who – as soon as they are caught with their hand in the cookie jar start using all sorts of tactics thus creating a smoke screen and try to attract sympathy. It is definitely not those who – when accused – refuse to use the same system they are paid to serve. The real victims are us – the users of justice. It is us who should weep our sad bosoms empty!

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