Decision record
The Attorney General v The Jamaican Bar Association
Appeals and appellate references
- Appeal-related document for this matter: View PDF in Full Screen
“Unverified” means the upstream page linked an appellate judgment but did not preserve enough context to prove that it was an appeal in this matter.
Allegation / charges
Appeal Allowed | Privy Council decision delivered February 09, 2023. View PDF in Full Screen …
Findings — machine-extracted (anthropic-batch:claude-opus-4-8); verify against the decision
The Jamaican Bar Association challenged provisions of Jamaica's anti-money laundering regime (under POCA, extended to attorneys in 2013) as violating constitutional rights to privacy, liberty and freedom from search of property. The Full Court found no significant unconstitutional infringement; the Court of Appeal disagreed and quashed parts of the regime. The Privy Council allowed the appeals of the Attorney General and General Legal Council, holding: (1) the regime did not derogate significantly from legal professional privilege, which was adequately protected; (2) it did not infringe the right to liberty; (3) section 91A conferred no coercive search-and-seizure powers, so no infringement of protection from search; and (4) while the regime did infringe attorney-client confidentiality (a lesser aspect of privacy), that infringement was demonstrably justified given the paramount importance of combating money laundering. The order of the Full Court was restored. This is a constitutional/regulatory case, not an individual disciplinary matter, so no findings of dishonesty or sanctions against a lawyer arise.