Introduction

• Author: Fara Brown
• Profession: Attorney-at-law practising in Jamaica for over 30 years
• Pages: 20-25

Introduction

Those engaged in the study and practice of family law in Jamaica

occupy all tiers of legal knowledge and understanding, from the

secondary school students doing ‘CAPE’ or ‘A’ levels who ponder

entering the legal profession to the seasoned judge or practitioner

who is faced with a novel point law that must be researched.

The rst experience I had with practising family law in the

Caribbean was when I worked at the Kingston Legal Aid Clinic in

Jamaica. Working there was a steep learning curve that involved

daily attendance in court to obtain decrees in undefended divorce

cases. I relied heavily on my skills as an advocate which had

been honed in the criminal courts and picked up a thing or two

by overhearing conversations between other attorneys that often

sounded vaguely familiar to what I had learnt when reading for

my LLB in London. As with most courts around the world, much of

the day-to-day family hearings that take place at both court tiers

proceed with little or no reference to case law because the system

assumes certain knowledge, which need not be restated.

At the Norman Manley Law School (NMLS) Legal Aid Clinic, once

again doing divorce cases, I was happy to nd myself so closely

aligned to the classroom and seized the invitation to teach a tutorial

in family practice and procedure. For any practitioner, the most

valuable way of developing knowledge of the law – other than the

time-honoured method of sitting in court – is to teach. All of the

associate tutors at the NMLS who either practise or preside in court

will attest that teaching law provides such rigorous exposure that

it will usually have a telling impact on the way you carry out your

professional duties. At NMLS, as a regional institution, students

from ve or six other Caribbean countries will be in attendance in