Government May Take Legal Action Against Lawyer in Failed Election Challenge Case

The government says it will not seek to recover the legal costs incurred during the legal challenge from Jeremy Enriquez but may explore legal action against his attorney. Enriquez, who is attempting to stop the general elections until the redistricting exercise is held, has reportedly led to a significant amount of public funds being spent on legal fees. The government enlisted a private law firm to handle the case, which led to questions regarding the cost of legal representation. Many argue that while an individual citizen filed the application, taxpayer dollars are now being used to cover the expense of a legal battle. Senior Counsel Eamon Courtenay was asked if the government would have sought cost from Enriquez and explained that it was not likely but alluded to other options. 

Eamon Courtenay SC, Attorney at Law: “As a general rule in public law and constitutional law cases the state does, if it wins, does not usually get costs unless the court is persuaded that the claimants acted wholly unreasonably, that they are persisting in circumstances where the law is obviously against them or the facts are against them and they are still taking up court time. Then an application can be made by the state to say, listen in this particular case there was some unreasonable behavior and we’re asking the court to exercise its discretion. I have no instructions at this stage from the attorney general to say, go after anybody for costs, go after Mr. Enriquez for costs. I will say this, the application to the Caribbean Court of Justice was to quote the Caribbean Court of Justice “without merit”. That application was conceived of by Mr. Ramlogan, not by Mr. Enriquez. There is something called wasted costs which focuses not on the client but on the lawyer and I think that is something that needs to be looked at in this particular matter.”

Senior Counsel Courtenay represented the Attorney General’s Office and the Prime Minister.