by Linda Straker
- Land in Briton Estate, Carriacou was owned by deceased Esau, wife Mary Fleary and the spouse and stepchild of one child
- Legal practitioner for claimants shall pay wasted costs of $2,000 pursuant to CPR 64.8
- Claimants shall pay costs of $3,000
A high court judge in Grenada has ordered attorney Nazim Burke, the former Finance Minister during the 2008 to 2013 National Democratic Congress (NDC) administration, to pay wasted costs to the court because of his failure to provide proper and reasonable advice to a client in a land dispute matter.
According to the 13 May 2025 judgment posted on the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court (ECSC) website, wasted costs in the ruling means any costs incurred by a party:
- as a result of any improper, unreasonable or negligent act or omission on the part of any legal practitioner or any employee of the legal practitioner; or
- which, in the light of any act or omission occurring after they were incurred, the court considers it unreasonable to expect that party to pay
“The legal practitioner for the claimants shall pay wasted costs in the sum of $2,000 pursuant to CPR 64.8,” said the Hon. Madam Justice Agnes Actie in her judgment about a parcel of land in the Briton Estate, Carriacou which was owned by deceased Esau and wife Mary Fleary and the spouse and stepchild of one of the 9 children.
“The legal practitioner as an officer of the court is under an obligation to ensure compliance with the CPR 2023 Revised Edition and also to advise the claimants on the laws of administration of estates,” said the judgment.
It further explained that “the omission of the first claimant’s witness statement, which is a necessity to deploy the evidence to support the claimants’ claim, is in the court’s view a gross omission on the part of the legal practitioner who would have filed the trial bundle in preparation for the trial.”
“The claimants shall pay costs in the sum of $3,000. The total costs in the sum of $5,000 shall be paid to the defendants within thirty (30) days of today’s date,” instructs the 13 May 2025 judgment.
They’re are many lawyers in Grenada who needs to disbarred. There seems to laws for everything and everyone except those crooked lawyers who run amok.