By SKNLP:
The leader of Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition, Rt. Hon. Dr Denzil Douglas has been awarded the payment of legal costs following the striking out of the case brought against him by Cuthbert Mills.
At the behest of the coalition government, Mills had filed a case against Dr Douglas that was identical to the diplomatic passport case filed by Attorney General Vincent Byron also against Dr Douglas. So identical was Mills’ case to the AG’s that he had attempted to present some of the AG’s so-called witnesses and evidence as witnesses and evidence for his case.
Earlier today (August 1st, 2018), Mrs Angelina Sookoo-Bob, a member of Dr Douglas’ legal team stated that Justice Trevor Ward had delivered his judgement just yesterday, July 31st, 2018 on the awarding of legal costs, following the striking out of Mills’ case.
“Justice Ward delivered his decision in writing yesterday…and the Court agreed with us that Dr Douglas is entitled to legal cost, particularly because Mr Mills’ claim was an abuse of the court’s process and Mr Mills cannot come under the umbrella that his claim was a matter of public importance to override Dr Douglas’ entitlement to legal cost having successfully won his application to strike out.”
Mrs Sookoo explained that Dr Douglas’ legal team had submitted its application on the matter of cost from the standpoint of him having to fight such an egregious case in the courts. She also explained the ridiculous standpoint from which Mills’ legal team had attempted to argue against that submission.
“Our position was that in election matters, and particularly where the court is found that Mr Mills’ claim was an abuse of process, Dr Douglas should be entitled to costs which costs should be assessed, meaning determined at a later date after we have filed our legal invoices. Mr Mills team argued that cost should not be awarded to Dr Douglas because their case was an important case and that in public matters, this case should be seen as a matter of public interest and far as they were concerned, Dr Douglas took too long to ask for the matter to be struck out.”
Mrs Sookoo also stated that while the exact amount to be awarded Dr Douglas was not yet known, both sides have twenty-one days to arrive at a mutual agreement. Should this fail, the matter would be referred to the court.
“What has to happen now is that the parties have 21 days to agree on the quantum of the cost that should be paid to Dr Douglas. If there is no agreement, then we will file an application attaching our legal bill and asking the court to order Mr Mills to pay whatever our legal bill is and that would include our legal bills for both Queen’s Counsel and Junior Counsel.”