Latest update November 19th, 2024 1:00 AM
Latest News
- Referendum on oil contract crucial before any future negations with Exxon-WPA
- Foreign companies making US millions in Guyana must pay fair share of taxes-says Jagdeo
- Risk of famine in Gaza has reached disaster levels’: Turkey’s President
- Woman raped and robbed in Linden
- Brutus on $16.25M bail for 231 financial crime charges
Brassington’s 19 lawsuits… Kaieteur News files malpractice complaint against lawyer Chris Ram
The Publisher of Kaieteur News, Glenn Lall, has filed a malpractice complaint against attorney-at-law Christopher Ram.
Attorney-at-law, Christopher Ram
Ram, who was representing Kaieteur News in a number of libel suits filed by former head of the National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL), Winston Brassington, is being accused of abandoning his client at the last moment.
Trials for a number of those cases involving Brassington started on Monday. They were scheduled to continue yesterday before two different judges in the High Court. One set of cases was before Justice Fidela Corbin-Lincoln and another before Justice Navindra Singh.
According to Lall, the lawyer (Ram) who was to lead the defence, was not even in court when the trial started on Monday. He never briefed his clients.
On Monday, Attorney-at-law Shaunella Glen, who inherited the case from Khemraj Ramjattan on him becoming Minister, said that she had been trying for weeks to reach Ram but to no avail.
Filed 19 lawsuits: Winston Brassington
She said that Ram only provided the files to the case, by way of a junior in his office, a mere 20 minutes before the trial began. She was ill-prepared to cross examine Brassington.
Twice Justice Fidela Corbin-Lincoln, who was hearing the trial adjourned the trial to allow Kaieteur News to contact Ram for the trial and twice Ram was unavailable.
It was after that trial that Lall visited Ram’s office on Monday evening, when Ram opined that he (Lall) could not win. He said that Ram then gave him the files, a signal that he would not be representing the newspaper company.
The publisher said he has evidence which he will present to the Legal Practitioners Committee, where he filed the complaint this week. That body has powers to hear complaints from clients and sanction lawyers.
Yesterday, attorney-at-law, Shaunella Glen, informed Justice Fidela Corbin-Lincoln that the National Media and Publishing Company Limited, which publishes Kaieteur News, had dropped her. This was because Ram, as the lead counsel, had abandoned them.
Publisher of Kaieteur News, Glenn Lall
Justice Corbin-Lincoln agreed to adjourn the trial, but not before she admonished the defendants for wasting the court’s time. She said that there is a backlog, but people always attribute this to the courts and not to the litigants and plaintiffs, as happened yesterday.
With reluctance, she granted the newspaper the adjournment sought to find a new counsel and to prepare for trial, this time on September 28, 2020. However, the court awarded $150,000 in costs to Brassington and his team in the wake of the adjournment.
In two other libel writs later yesterday afternoon and before Justice Navindra Singh, Kaieteur News also advanced the same cause and was granted time to find a new counsel.
That court also awarded $50,000 in costs to Brassington and his team.
Brassington is the former head of the Privatisation Unit and of NICIL, a sister body.
He was constantly in the news after 2009 for a number of major deals involving state assets.
The instances involved Marriott Hotel, the Berbice River Bridge, Rusal, and sale of a number of state properties.
In 2014, months before general elections, Brassington began to file writs. In the end, there were 19 writs.
In June, lawyers for Brassington immediately moved to have him testify via Skype.
But the court could not readily accede to the request, given the limitations on the availability of the equipment.
From the inception, Kaieteur News’s publisher and editors refused to be muzzled in the face of what they saw as a number of irregularities.
The result is that Brassington sued repeatedly.
Similar Articles
THE BLUNT OF THE DAY
Sports
Features/Columnists
A shameful abdication of leadership
…Peeping Tom Kaieteur News- The PPPC government has reached a new low in its spineless defense of the lopsided Production... more
Rising Gun Crimes in the Caribbean: Urgent Action required by all
By Sir Ronald Sanders Kaieteur News – There is an alarming surge in gun-related violence, particularly among younger... more
Weekend Cartoon
