Members of Bermuda Bar Association voted last month on whether or not bankrupt lawyers should be allowed to practise on the Island.

Ninety lawyers responded to a poll on the topic by the association, which has 385 members. Seventy of the respondents — or about 18 percent of the total membership — supported in principle the amendment, which was passed in the House of Assembly on Friday.

The Bar Council, the association's elected governing body, gave its support to the change in the law, also in principle, before canvassing members.

More than 20 of the lawyers who took part in the poll sent additional comments to the Bar Association. Here are some of their remarks:

¦ "I am completely opposed to the bill in this form, which is wholly unacceptable interference by government with the standards of legal practice in Bermuda."

¦ "I do not see why the restrictions are only with regard to real estate law, when there are other areas of law that deal with fiduciary duties. I think the scope is too narrow."

¦ "I for one would like to know how something like this can be unanimously approved without an SGM (special general meeting) or proper previous consultation. In addition, simply voting by e-mail without seeing the legislation and without debate cannot be right."

¦ "On the whole the draft bill achieves what most people would consider reasonable, in the circumstances, and protects the interests of the public, which is even more important."

¦ "The amendment...should not have retrospective effect. It should apply only to barristers who find themselves bankrupts after the amendments come into force."

n "I am in favour of allowing bankrupt lawyers to practise, provided they are subject to suitable restrictions and supervised by the Bar Association."

n "I would like to see a wide discretion vested in the Bar to limit the work that the bankrupt attorney is conducting, which I don't think should necessarily be limited to a prohibition against real estate work."

¦ "Conditions need to have some teeth and the protection of clients must be paramount."

¦ "An attorney should continue to be barred if there are acts of dishonesty and/or gross negligence and/or some other sufficiently undesirable act which also breaches the attorney ethics code (especially if this act led to the attorney being declared bankrupt)."

¦ "It would have been more appropriate for the Bar Council not to have expressed an opinion on the proposal until it had consulted the membership. What would the Bar Council do if the proposal is rejected by the membership? Resign en bloc?"

¦ "Bankruptcy entails a personal failure to live within the bankrupt's means and this fact alone should disqualify that person from managing the legal affairs of a client."

¦ "To make it mandatory to grant the practising certificate, as the draft bill provides, makes a mockery of the process."

¦ "I think we owe it to the public to make good character a requirement for the reinstatement of a...certificate that has been suspended or revoked for whatever reason."