Julian Hall the man who many believe was targeted by a bill to banish bankrupt barristers yesterday voiced joy at a new law tossing out that restriction which he labelled a political vendetta.

Mr. Hall said he could now practise law in Bermuda courts for the first time in almost nine years.

And he vowed to continue his fight to secure a complete discharge of this bankruptcy. A full hearing could take place as early as next month, he said.

"It should indeed have been discharged several years ago," said Mr. Hall.

"The failure to have this bankruptcy discharged over all these years has resulted in my having lost millions of dollars of income."

Mr. Hall, who has been working as consultant for the Works and Engineering Department, noted that no one including the Bar Council, the Bar Association, the Government and the Opposition had denied that the original legislation banning bankrupt lawyers from practising in the courts was "unfair, unjust and unconstitutional".

He added: "I am mystified that it should have taken as long as 24 years to be removed from the statute books of Bermuda, despite years of public struggle on my part to bring about a repeal."

Bermuda became the only country in the world to impose an automatic and blanket ban on bankrupt lawyers being permitted to appear professionally in the courts, claimed Mr. Hall.

And he added: "To the best of my knowledge, I am the only barrister in Bermuda who has ever been affected by this iniquitous, unjust, unfair and unconstitutional law.

"As the late L. Frederick Wade pointed out in 1984 that legislation was clearly passed by the United Bermuda Party in order to punish, victimise and retaliate against me for opposing the then Government and for joining as was my constitutional right the Progressive Labour Party.

"I am also aware of the fact that certain judges of the Supreme Court of Bermuda have, in other cases, expressly refused to make an order adjudicating other lawyers bankrupt on the ground that they will have to suffer the same fate as myself."

Mr. Hall said it had been an incredibly painful ordeal for him and his family and he was proud that the Ewart Brown Government had finally "grasped the nettle and removed this injustice from our statute books".