BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – THERE have been new developments in the claim made by renowned local Attorney-at-Law Chesley Hamilton concerning monies owed to him by the previous and current Governments for services he rendered as a Court Appointed Legal Aid Lawyer.
Hamilton, who had taken to the airwaves as well as to launch peaceful one-man protests, claimed that he had represented a number of individuals charged either with murder or manslaughter and to date he has not been properly compensated by the State for his services.
On Friday (Dec. 9), he was seen protesting outside Government Headquarters with a placard that read: “Pay me my money a done work”. This action was followed up a few days later outside Team Unity Headquarters on Fort Street with two placards that read: “Pay me then vex wid me” and “LOL AG Team Unity pay me, me 7 months rent.”
He explained that the monies owed to him date back to the former Administration and the issue continues today with the current one.
When he was protesting outside Government Headquarters while the 2017 Budget Debate was in progress, this publication had questioned him on the reason for such action.
“This afternoon I am here protesting because I have worked in the courthouse on a number of capital matters. I had sent my bill to the AG’s Chambers, the Executive of the Government, because the Judiciary, which is another branch of the Government, had appointed me and I need to be paid.
“I am not being paid and I have worked on a number of murder cases for the year. I have worked over the years on even more cases. I sent my detailed bill to the Government and as far as I understand, the AG said he is not paying me any money. So I don’t know what his problem is and I don’t know what his difficulty is, because he said his fees and his scale is $10,000 to $15,000, which is a ridiculous amount for the most serious matters that could ever come before a court system.”
Hamilton said the fee that he charges for capital cases is between $50,000 and $75,000.
However, in the National Assembly on Tuesday (Dec. 13), Attorney General Vincent Byron Jr. had addressed the fees of Court Appointed Legal Aid Lawyers and provided a detailed explanation on the reasons why Hamilton was not paid the amount of monies he had requested.
The AG spoke to the issue of criminal matters, such as murder, manslaughter and rape. He explained that if an individual was charged for any of these crimes and could not afford legal representation, a lawyer would be provided following a “means test”.
“When the matter is called up in court, the judge would then ask the defendant if he has a lawyer. And if he says no, the judge would then ask a lawyer who is in attendance in the court if they would be willing to represent the defendant. The court would then assign that lawyer, if that agreed, to the case.
“The Court Administrator would then pass a note to the Executive Officer of the High Court Registry, who, supervised by the Registrar of the High Court, would allocate fees to be paid from the Consolidated Fund for the work done.”
He also explained that that practice was initiated more than 10 years ago and most lawyers operated and cooperated under that process.
Byron made reference to a number of files in his office which shows that Jose Lloyd, the then Assistant Secretary in the High, had written a letter to Attorney General Patrice Nisbett following a review of fees paid to Court Assigned Lawyers.
The letter, he said, was dated November 29, 2010 and is captioned “Court Assigned Lawyers in Capital cases and legal fees”.
Reading from the letter, AG Byron said: “Mr. Lloyd has set out in this letter current fees is at the time were and it was based on a set table in which a number of years of the experience lawyer were divided into 10 years or less and that lawyer would have received in 2010 a fee of $5,000 for a capital case. Mr. Lloyd indicated that for an appearance in court for one day that lawyer would have received a fee of $250 for a capital case. That if the defendant pleaded guilty, the lawyer would receive $2,500 for appearing in the court. And if there was an appeal to the Court of Appeal, he would receive $2,500. If the lawyer operated for more than 10 years and over, that fee would be $7,500 for capital cases and per diem and guilty $500. This [is] what pertain in 2010 and, having met with the Attorney General, Mr Lloyd and the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Justice and Legal Affairs and their discussions would have recommended an uplift, an increase in those fees. So that from 2010 upward because it was accepted.
“If you were a lawyer with 10 years or more, or less years or less practice, you would have received $7,500 for a murder trial. You get a per diem of $750 per day if you attended court. If the defendant pleads guilty the lawyer would get $2,500. If you are a lawyer from 10 to 20 years, you would receive $10,000 and so forth.”
He told the Honourable House that it is a clearly established scale of fees that the Registry of the High Court manages, so that when the judge assigns a case to a Court Appointed Lawyer he would ask if someone is willing to do the case.
This, he explained, is seen as “the contribution of the Bar to assist the court in defence of somebody in a very serious case, very serious matter. And so from 2010 onwards these were the fees policy that was established by the then Attorney General, Mr Patrice Nisbett...Subsequently, Attorney General Jason Hamilton also pursued this policy, and one will know that Mr. Hamilton himself is a Lawyer, who practices criminal law before the Bar and before the court. He also was involved in that”.
He pointed out that over time some Attorneys were dissatisfied with the scale of fees.
AG Byron also referred to a letter that he received from Chesley Hamilton in May 2015 from which he provided excerpts to the House.
The AG quoted from the letter, claiming that Hamilton said, “I wish to bring to your attention a number of outstanding matters which were brought to the attention of your predecessors - to Patrice Nisbett, to Jason Hamilton and before him Attorney General Dennis Merchant. Please find enclosed copies of these letters that were sent.”
Byron said Hamilton stated that the matters fell into four different categories - matters of which he had been partly paid; matters of which he was underpaid, matters of which he is not being paid, and matters not addressed for 2015.
“I hereby seek an audience with your good office to address matters in the first three categories and I hereby also request payment for matters in the fourth category,” the AG quoted from the letter.
Byron said he had met with Hamilton on more than one occasion to discuss those matters, and that the Attorney had sent him another letter in August 2015 following his [AG] request for specific particulars on the issue.
“Mr. Hamilton has tendered a letter in August of 2015 - last year having met and requested particulars in which he has identified a number of names for whom it is implied that he has acted as a Court Assisted Lawyer. We have had to verify the case numbers, we have had to verify the dates that these cases would have been conducted, (and) we have had to verify the particular outcome of these cases. This information was not contained in any of these letters that were received by the Office of the Attorney General. They were not supplied when requested of Mr. Hamilton.”
As a result of not providing sufficient particulars on the matters as requested, the Ag posed a number of questions in the House and stated the amount of money that Hamilton claimed is owed to him.
“Was there a guilty plea? Was the matter withdrawn by the prosecution? Was this at the preliminary inquiry stage? No particulars were provided by the Attorney, and for each and every name submitted, sometimes twice, he requested a retainer of $75,000 for a grand total of $2.1M that he wanted the Office of the Attorney General to pay.”
AG Byron indicated to the House that his office had conducted an intensive investigation into the matter and noted that if Hamilton or any other lawyer had assisted the court, the Government would want that settled within the existing framework.
“If needs be, we would revise such a framework if it was not fair and not equitable,” he added.
He further informed the House that the AG’s Office had also conducted an extensive review of other jurisdictions in the Commonwealth Caribbean on the fees paid to Court Assigned Lawyer for capital matters.
Byron noted that in Trinidad, where US$1 is equivalent to TT$5, that country pays a fee not exceeding $15,000 which is equivalent to EC$8.100.
“However,” he added, “the presiding judge may, if he thinks fit, certified the case was of unusual length or difficulty and increases the fee of the Attorney-at-Law to a sum not exceeding TT$20,000 or US$4,000. In exceptional cases the Attorney-at-Law may be allowed an additional fee not exceeding TT$10,000.”
He also looked at the fees in Barbados and stated that for a capital matter, a junior Counsel’s fee is B$4,500; and if the trial lasts longer than one day, after the first up to a maximum of five days, he or she would be paid B$500.
And in St. Vincent, where the scale has been in existence for over 25 years, fees are capped EC$10,000.
“The fee on brief in St. Vincent where the court gets a lawyer to assist a defendant who is unrepresented is EC$1,500. The fee on arraignment is EC$1,500 when you go to plea, when you go for arraignment when you go to plea, PI and so on, is $500. For each day of trial, or part thereof, $500. Fees are capped at EC$10,000. They don’t pay you more than EC$10,000. This instruction that is referred to above is a useful guide for determining the appropriate fees in this jurisdiction, having regard to the position in the Caribbean territories outlined above and being mindful of need for such services in St. Kitts and Nevis and the public purse,” the Ag explained.
He announced that last year the Ministry of Justice and Legal Affairs had determine that it would increase the 2010 rates done by Jose Lloyd by 50%. “So that lawyer in more than 10 years in practice would now get $15,000. Ten years or less, $10,000 and $1,000 per day for attendance at trial and other appearances before the court. If there was a plea for not guilty, so there is a plea of guilty, the lawyer will get $3,500; an Appeal before the Court of Appeal will be $6,500.”
The AG also made public that $420,300 were paid to eight Court Assigned Lawyers over the past two years (2015 and 2016).
These lawyers, he said, are Dr. Henry Browne, Hesketh Benjamin, Chesley Hamilton, Fitzroy Eddy, John Cato, Robelto Hector and Marissa Hobson-Newman. “And of this $420,300, Mr. Chesley Hamilton has received $158,500. He has been paid out of the Consolidated Fund $158,500.
The Hon. Vincent Byron Jr., who also holds the portfolio of Minister of Justice and Legal Affairs, told the House that the Office of the Attorney General would continue to review the fee structure in the New Year.
“We will present a number of options, including the creation of an Office of Public Defender in which Attorneys who would be dedicated to offer legal aid defence to those charged in criminal matters, including capital cases. This proposal will be put to Cabinet and, once a decision is made, we hope that we will have the necessary legislative framework to do this.”
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