By ANGELO ARMBRISTER

Freeport News Reporter

angelo@nasguard.com

As The Bahamas joins the age of information technology with the recent launching of a website that gives public access to the laws of The Bahamas, two local attorneys are commending Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs Allyson Maynard-Gibson for the necessary move forward.

The new website is the result of an ongoing commitment of the Government through the efforts of the Law Reform and Revision Commission to provide easy access to the Laws of The Bahamas.

According to reports, users of the website may view the consolidated laws which are current up to April 2002 as well as selected Acts from 2002 onwards.

The site contains information as it appeared "in the official bound volumes of the 2000 Revised Edition of The Statute Law of The Bahamas."

In a statement released on the government's web page, it clearly warns that the contents of the site are provided for information purposes only and nothing should be construed as constituting legal advice.

It furthered that while it is their aim to ensure the accuracy of its contents, errors can be made, as the information will constantly be changing and can become outdated.

With the successful launch of Law Online, some of Grand Bahama's more prominent attorneys are sharing their views on what is being described as a vast step forward for the nation.

Attorney David Thompson, who is credited for being a veteran in his field explained that in law, every man is presumed to know the law and ignorance of that is no excuse.

"With that in mind I must commend the government of The Bahamas and the minister, and the administration of justice system for finally making available to the general public the laws of The Bahamas in such an accessible form," he said.

"I believe that this is of great benefit to the public who will use it wisely and who will make full use of knowing the law as every man and woman should."

Thompson added that access to the law in this way would be anything but beneficial to everybody and that while some may feel it lessens the roles of lawyers in society, "to my mind it only increases for members of the public to seek legal advice.

"It is said that the more you learn about the law, the more you realize how little you know and lawyers are able therefore to channel the knowledge you've gained in such a way as to make it meaningful to you," he explained.

Renowned attorney Fred Smith, like Thompson, congratulated the Attorney General for her efforts and the efforts of her department in achieving such a stride in citizen empowerment.

"This is a quantum leap forward for The Bahamas and I am grateful as a citizen and a lawyer to Minister Gibson for her efforts," he said.

Smith explained that having the laws online will revolutionize access to information about laws to the public and the more readily available laws are to the general public, the more informed and educated our citizenry will be.

Before now, he said the written law was a monopoly of lawyers and government agencies.

"The government publications offices were only in Nassau and citizens through the Family Islands did not have ready access to our laws."

He said that the only way ordinary persons could get information about the law was through a lawyer, a commissioner or the costly purchase of copies from the government publications in Nassau.

"The law is for the people and it is fantastic that they will now be at the finger tips of every Bahamian resident and tourist at no cost," he shared.

"What this also means is that investors, their legal advisors and their financial advisors abroad will be able to efficiently and accurately access our laws."

Noting that The Bahamas is in the age of information technology, Smith said disseminating it in this way transforms the nation from a backward, third world country in which lawyers and government bureaucracy monopolize information to a real first world country, "in which we are plugged in like the rest of the world."

When questioned regarding the effects this website will have on lawyers in The Bahamas, Smith explained that it will not make lawyers any less important than they are now, but rather lessen some of the administrative and procedural work that lawyers presently do.

"With this new initiative lawyers can now focus on doing real legal work instead of just being in many cases paper pushers and translators," he said.

Smith noted that the next step would be for the government to revise the laws and make it easier for residents to understand.

"In the United States, Federal government passed a law to have law written in simple and plain English," he said. "Our parliamentarians should practice making our laws simpler so that the ordinary person can understand it."

LAW ONLINE – Users of The Bahamas' Laws Online website may view the consolidated laws which are current up to April 2002 as well as selected Acts from 2002 onwards. The contents of the site are provided for information purposes only and for all to have easy access to the Laws of The Commonwealth of The Bahamas. (Staff photo by ANGELO ARMBRISTER)