Attorney Ordered to Pay $60K to Pastor Dozie or Face Suspension

Attorney Orson Elrington was ordered and has paid just over sixty thousand dollars following a ruling by the General Legal Council (GLC).   On Friday, July 12, the council ordered that the monies be paid by the end of the business day on July 19 to Pastor Dozie.  If he defaults, he will be suspended from practicing law until the total is paid.  Additionally, Elrington is ordered to pay a fine of fifteen thousand dollars by August.  Of this amount, five thousand is to be paid to Dozie.  The backstory stems from last year when Dozie retained Elrington to launch a constitutional challenge against the Social Security Board (SSB) when he was denied a survivor’s grant following the death of his wife. However, instead of taking the matter to court, Elrington opted to settle with the SBB to the tune of forty-six thousand dollars without consulting Dozie, nor did he forward the compensation to the client.  Elrington spoke with Love News, conceding to errors made on his part in this matter he says was somewhat pro-bono.

Orson “OJ” Elrington, Attorney: “The decision was what it was. We respect the decision. Ultimately it was a question of whether or not the client had given his authority to accept it. I know for a fact that he did accept it orally in front of me but what I did fail to do, and my firm failed to do was to get that acceptance of that in writing and therefore essentially it is for that reason we were sanctioned, I was sanctioned with the fine of $15,000. There was never any question of whether or not the funds, the funds from the beginning as the judge mentions itself we have been asking him for his account number, he simply did not provide it and so those funds have been waiting for him and the fine and the payment has already been issued and paid.”

Reporter: So both the $15,000 fine and the forty odd have been paid ? 

Orson “OJ” Elrington, Attorney:“Yes. Again the funds were there waiting in the bank account from day one, from the very day we received it we confirmed with him and that is where the issue arose in it’s first instance.”

While Elrington has paid out the monies, it is not the only issue that he faces as the GLC has recommended a forensic investigation by Police over what is suspected to be a forged signature on an engagement letter with Dozie.  According to the 12-page document, the GLC became suspicious when Elrington failed to produce the originals of both engagement letters with wet ink signatures.  As a result, the Council finds that there is a high degree of probability that there was no second “redrafted” engagement letter that was signed by Pastor Dozie.  In his defense, Elrington claimed to have gotten Dozie’s permission and relied on copies of two engagements, which Dozie allegedly signed. Despite being asked by the council twice, Elrington did not provide any of the original documents, while Dozie furnished original documents and WhatsApp conversations.  It is quite a pickle that the attorney has found himself in, and one that he says he can bounce back from due to his legal wisdom and professionalism.

Orson “OJ” Elrington, Attorney: “That is obviously the travesty in all this situation but thankfully I have no shortage of persons who are confidence in my legal acumen and in my principled approach to dealing with clients and so of course there will be persons who are affected by it but I hope that and I know that me and my family have been in the practice of law for decades and so we have an unrivaled reputation of being principled. And it is for this very reason you know what is the truth is that we have always tried to assist people. I used to, we used to be a running joke that my father was willing to be paid in oranges and bananas because we have always thought access to justice is what is critically important. And so while this situation obviously makes you think twice about doing certain things in so far as offering pro bono legal representation in thinking about it all we’ve done is to ensure that whenever it is we’re offering this type of service that we dot our “I’d” , we cross our “T’s” and we dot our “I’d” and cross our “T’s” twice. We implemented new stringent procedures in dealing with clients and os that is how we deal with it by just ensuring that we try to do our best to provide then highest quality service to the Belizean public as possible.”

In its judgment, the GLC raised several issues with Elrington’s actions, including his heavy reliance on a paralegal to do his work.