Queen's Counsel presence sparks queries of conflict of interest

Queen’s Counsel presence sparks queries of conflict of interest

Mar 16, 2019 News

Who would want to act in a manner that goes against the desires of someone who can potentially block or support their promotion?
“No one, not one soul,” said attorney at law, Sanjeev Datadin.
He made this point as he noted that former Attorney General of Grenada, Dr. Francis Raphael Alexis, has joined the government’s legal team arguing in the appeal to the Chief Justice’s ruling on the no confidence motion.

Attorney at Law, Sanjeev Datadin

The Chief Justice upheld the decision of the Speaker of the National Assembly, Dr. Barton Scotland, that the no confidence motion was properly passed on December 21, last, but the government, through Attorney General, Basil Williams, is seeking to have it overruled.

Dr. Alexis is a member of the Regional Judicial and Legal Services Commission of the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ), having been appointed in November 2015. That is the body that appoints judges to the CCJ.
Dr. Alexis’s petition to practise law here was presented by attorney Mayo Robertson before Justice, Brassington Reynolds, in the High Court on Monday.
But Datadin thinks that that petition should not have been granted.
He said that Dr. Alexis may appear before judges who have ambition to be appointed CCJ judges. He said that those judges will not want to deliver a ruling that is not in favour of the arguments presented by Dr. Alexis.
Datadin said, “He should not appear before judges because the judges before whom he is making submissions will have to apply to him for a job if they want to go to the Caribbean Court of Justice. No person who sits on that Commission should be appearing in court.”
Datadin drew a parallel to Guyana’s Judicial Service Commission. He noted that one seat on that Commission is filled by a lawyer who cannot practise. “And it is for the same reason; the inference is that when they apply to you, you may want to don’t them.”