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| Hugh Wildman |
The Grenada government has reportedly paid out one million E.C dollars in legal fees to a British Queen's Counsel to represent Jamaican Hugh Wildman who is seeking to become the island's next Attorney-General.
Well-placed sources told GRENADA TODAY that the money was paid out from the Government Treasury to English Queen's Counsel, J. Gutherie who was specially brought in to appear this week in the Wildman matter before the Court of Appeal.
Apart from Gutherie, the State also had to pay the legal fees of the high priced former Attorney-General of Trinidad and Tobago, Lawrence Ramesh Maharaj who also appeared in the matter.
According to a well-placed source, the one million dollars passed through a local bank into an account in England as retainer fees for Gutherie.
There are unconfirmed reports that Gutherie was threatening not to fly down to Grenada to appear in the case before the court unless the fees said to be 200, 000.00 British Pounds Sterling (equivalent to one million E.C dollars) was paid into his account.
Wildman is challenging a decision earlier in the year by the Judicial and Legal Services Commission (JLSC) not to recommend him for appointment to the post of Attorney-General following a challenge to his suitability by members of the Grenada Bar Association (GBA).
The State had earlier hinted that Wildman would be responsible for his legal fees and that it would not be a burden on the taxpayers of the country.
However, documents filed in court indicated that there was now a "Change of Solicitor" for Wildman and that the Attorney General Chambers would now be taking charge of the matter.
The document filed in the Supreme Court of Grenada said in part: "Take Notice that the Attorney-General Chambers has been appointed to act as Solicitor for the above-named Appellant/Claimant" (Hugh Wildman) in the JLSC matter.
The source said that senior officers within the Ministry of Finance are upset with the one million dollar payout for the English lawyer that was hired to represent Wildman.
"How could government do such a thing (pay one million for Hugh Wildman) when people are seeing so much hell and trouble in this country", he quipped.
Earlier Tuesday, during a meeting of the Finance Committee of the House of Representatives to prepare for the December 15 Budget Presentation, the legal representation status of Wildman was raised by Opposition Leader, Tillman Thomas.
A source close to the meeting said that Prime Minister Mitchell was rather vague in his response but hinted that the State would not be paying the legal fees for Wildman.
In the Wildman matter, the State is challenging the decision of high court judge, Justice Davidson Baptiste to reject the claim of the Jamaican attorney-at-law for judicial review of the JLSC decision not to advise the Governor-General to appoint him as Attorney-General.
Wildman is challenging the "impartiality" of the judge on the basis of "apparent" bias against him, as well as the approach and conclusions reached by Baptiste in arriving at the judgement.
An official spokesman for Thomas' main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) party said the NNP administration needs "to come out clean and inform the nation who is paying for Wildman's legal defense and how much it is costing".
He said the taxpayers of this country are continuing to be saddled with massive legal expenses by the Mitchell government.
He pointed out that in the current sitting of the Court of Appeal that apart from Gutherie, the State had to pay to the legal fees of Trinidad's Maharaj in the Wildman vs JLSC matter.
In addition, he said government had to find additional funds to pay Jamaican Queen's Counsel, R.N Henriques who was brought in specially by the State to argue the case brought against NDC's Peter David for the Town of St. George constituency.
The court dismissed the matter against David and award him further cost of EC$5000,00.00, bringing the total handed to him in cost to $18, 000.00
