BTB litigation bill goes up by quarter million dollars !

The Belize Tourism Board’s litigation bill has gone up by another quarter million Belize dollars after one of its former employees successfully sued for a breach of employment contract.  Jacqueline Locke, BTB’s former Registrar of Hotels was employed by BTB in April 2020, but by May 2021, the new administration notified her that they can no longer afford her salary due to Covid-19 cutbacks.  The matter went before the courts in December last year, and yesterday Justice Chabot handed down a judgement in favor of Locke.  According to Justice Chabot, the court found that Locke was terminated without cause and that there was a breach of contract.  As a result, the BTB has been ordered to pay just over quarter million dollars plus interest and cost of court which could very well bring the total to some three thousand dollars.  By our count, this is the third lawsuit that the BTB has lost with its Attorney Andrew Marshalleck.  The first blow came in September 2021 when former BTB Director successfully sued for three quarters of a million dollars plus seventy thousand dollars in legal fees.  The second lawsuit came from former Director of Marketing, Misty Michael who sued and won two hundred and eighteen thousand dollars.  Those two cases, however, have been appealed and it is expected that this latest court order will follow suit.