Clansman legal bill may cost taxpayers $50m

Attorneys providing legal aid for accused members of the Uchence Wilson Gang were paid a total of $55 million last year, Justice Minister Delroy Chuck disclosed in Parliament on Tuesday.

“If we continue at that rate, the estimate is that the One Don trial will cost the Government $50 million,” Chuck said of the major gang trial now under way before the Home Circuit Court.

One Don is a breakaway faction of feared Clansman Gang based in St Catherine.

The disclosure was made while Chuck discussed proposed changes to the Legal Aid Amendment Regulation 21 in Gordon House.

The regulations, among other things, set out new legal aid fees to be paid to attorneys.

Highlighting the monetary constraints in paying attorneys their worth, Chuck said if the Government paid what the attorneys were requesting, one trial could use up the legal aid budget passed by the Lower House.

Giving a breakdown of the fees going forward, the justice minister said that in matters such as murders, the original fees for senior counsel would be doubled to $270,000. For junior attorneys, the sum has also increased from $90,000 to $180,000.

A similar sum is paid, respectively, for senior and junior counsel representing legal aid clients accused of non-capital murder and manslaughter.

There are lesser fees for firearm offences. Senior counsel will get $180,000, while junior counsel will be paid $130,000.

In the Parish Courts, the sum of $90,000 will be paid to senior counsel for fraud offences. Their junior counterparts will get $60,000.

In complex gang cases, if attorneys have six or more persons before the courts for the first month of trial, senior counsel would be paid $300,000, while junior counsel would get $200,000.

For the second month, senior counsel would be paid $150,000, while $100,000 would be set aside for junior counsel.

Chuck said that senior counsel could be paid a maximum of $1.2 million and $800,000 for junior counsel.

“Now the truth, colleagues and the public at large, these are insufficient. We acknowledge that, but these are contributions from the State to attorneys,” Chuck maintained.