Antonnette Haughton Cardenas

Findings — machine-extracted (anthropic-batch:claude-opus-4-8); verify against the decision

Antoinette Haughton-Cardenas appealed against the General Legal Council's assumed power to require attorneys to submit annual accountants' reports. She had failed to submit reports for 1999 and 2000 (though she submitted them for 2001-2004). The Court of Appeal of Jamaica held that section 35(1) of the Legal Profession Act only empowered the GLC to make regulations on two matters (clients' bank accounts and keeping records of client money), and the words 'take such action as may be necessary' in section 35(2) did not include the power to make regulations. Regulations 16 and 17 were therefore ultra vires. The appeal was allowed with costs to the appellant, to be agreed or taxed (no figure stated). No finding of misconduct or dishonesty was made against the attorney.