It would appear to us at first light, not in the legal profession, that lawyers make piles of money and therefore should do community work via providing critical legal assistance to those in need.

The Legal Befriender Service says they are in dire need of lawyers to help the centre provide pro bono work.

There are 500 plus registered lawyers in the Cayman Islands and while they are expected to do some form of pro bono work they are under no obligation to do so.

However, how many of these 500 lawyers are actually trained in criminal matters that are the main call for assistance?

I don’t have the numbers but I doubt they are even near three figures.

It is only at interim level a law student will learn and take examinations in criminal law and evidence amongst the others – constitutional law, contracts, real property and torts.

Criminal law specialty in the Cayman Islands requires a certain degree of theatrics and posturing with articulate speaking and personality in addition with knowing the intricacies of your subject. The monetary rewards in other fields would seem to be more appealing.

Cayman Islands Chief Justice, Anthony Smellie, is actively promoting the involvement of attorneys in pro bono work but even his support has not borne much fruit. In fact the Legal Befriender Service, the charity support group that provides information and guidance to individuals facing difficult situations, free of charge, has reported a decline in the number of lawyers offering assistance.

The problem of shortage of numbers from the legal profession is made worse because more persons require assistance.

The Business & Professional Women’s Club established the Legal Befriender Service but the Family Resource Centre now coordinates it.

The argument put forward by some members of the legal profession that they don’t get anything free and they have had to study and work hard to enjoy the lifestyle they now have, must hold some amount of water.

It is the amount of water some of the legal profession are getting through their almost obscene hourly rates that make us lessor wage earners who also work very hard, have had to study and don’t get any free handouts either, question this stance.

What you take out you should give back in equal measure is a moral code.

So should the Government force law firms to provide some hours (say 50 hours per year) of pro bono public legal services a year to obtain their legal licence?

Would such a law do more harm than good with persons charged with criminal offences having a very inexperienced non-criminal lawyer representing them?

Many Cayman lawyers don’t want to do pro bono work. If it is forced on them only heaven can help his/her client by whose name gets pulled out of the cookie (read pro bono) jar.