Legal Advisor to Cabinet, Hugh Wildman has promised to take his judicial review case on his bid to become the island’s next Attorney-General to the Privy Council in England.

Wildman made the statement after a high court judge in St. George’s rejected his bid to overturn the decision of the Judicial and Legal Services Commission (JLCS) to recommend him to Governor-General for appointment to the high judicial post.

In delivering his ruling, high court judge, Justice Davidson Baptiste found that the Commission treated Wildman fairly and that the action taken not to recommend his appointment was legal. The judge dismissed the application for judicial review and ordered Wildman to pay costs.

He noted that “the requirements of procedural fairness have been satisfied in this case”. “It cannot be said that the Commission had adopted a procedure so unfair that it could be said to have acted with manifest unfairness”, said Justice Baptiste.

“The grounds of illegality and irrationality have not been established. In the circumstances, the application for judicial review is dismissed with costs”, he added. In reacting to his lost before the local court, Wildman lashed out at the Grenada Bar Association (GBA) accusing its members of hijacking the administration of justice in Grenada.

He disclosed that he will take the matter to the Court of Appeal and if necessary the Privy Council in London as he promised to get involved in a fight to the end. The controversial Jamaican-born attorney was adamant that there was interference from the local bar in the high court decision against him.

“And what this clearly demonstrates members of the media, is that the elements of the Bar Association have hijacked the administration of justice in Grenada,” he said. He charged that some members of the Bar Association are not lawyers but politicians who have a vested interest in removing the government of the day.

“Do you really expect that Wildman could have gotten justice in the circumstances? According to Wildman he has already filed an appeal against the decision of Justice Baptiste and that bias was one of the principle grounds of appeal. “We intend to fight this case to the end, because we are confident that we are going to succeed,” he remarked.

Wildman said he will be seeking the support of outside reputable jurists to highlight the glaring injustice taking place in Grenada. Wildman had retained the services of former Trinidad and Tobago Attorney General Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj SC to represent him before Justice Baptiste.

Wildman sought to link the decision handed down against him by Justice Baptiste to a letter which the President of GBA, Ruggles Ferguson had sent to government that the judge was not getting his salary in a timely manner during the period of the case. According to Wildman, it was his understanding that government is not responsible for the late payment of Justice Baptiste’s salary and if the judge had a problem the proper thing for him to do is to take the matter to the Judicial and Legal Services Commission. This, he said is not a matter to be championed by the local bar.

In a letter dated April 4, President of the Grenada Bar Association told the Registrar of the Supreme Court that the judge was placed at great inconvenience due to late payment of his salary. President Ferguson complained that the judge had been receiving his salary late since December 2005 and up to April 04, had not received his salary for March.

“...We find it incomprehensible that the problem remains unchecked and recurring...”, Ferguson told the Registrar. Wildman was recommended by the Keith Mitchell led administration on December 23, 2004, to be appointed to the Office of Attorney General in Grenada.

However, the recommendation was met with fierce opposition by the Bar Association with members staging a number of protest action including street marches and a boycotting of the courts. Among the reasons cited by GBA for rejecting the nomination was Wildman’s conduct as Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) in the early 1990’s in a criminal trial when he had a run in with former Attorney-General of the 1979-83 ill-fated People’s Revolutionary Government (PRG), the late Kendrick Radix.

In full view and hearing of the public gathered in and around the court, Wildman reportedly told Radix: “You don’t know any law, if I were in Jamaica, I would get my boys to deal with you,” while transforming the fingers of his hand into the shape of a gun. The bar also opposed the Wildman appointment due to his public attack on another former Attorney-General Lloyd Noel, whom he described as Œan ignoramus and nincompoop....who did not attend a secondary school and who happens to be associated with the practice of law...”
The local lawyers also voiced concerns with Wildman assuming the top legal post on account of his actions before high court judge and now President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Brian Alleyne in a matter involving the editor of the GRENADA TODAY newspaper.

Justice Alleyne slammed Wildman for trying to rewrite certain constitutional questions which Chief Magistrate Patricia Mark had referred to him for consideration. The judge described Wildman’s behaviour as falling short of “...the ethical standard which I think the Court is entitled to expect from any person holding the office of Director of Public Prosecutions...”