(CMR) Kattina Anglin lost her case against the Director of Legal Aid recently. She was seeking to challenge a legal aid decision which found that she had to contribute to the legal costs of her case against the Governor. Justice Williams found against Anglin, who has access to almost $60,000 between several bank accounts and was receiving the tourism stipend should have to contribute $4,000 to her legal defense.
The case against the Director of Legal Aid was heard on October 19, 2021 before The Honourable Justice Richard Williams. who noted that an assisted person can be made to contribute to their own legal costs as that was the intent of the legislators.
Anglin is suing the governor claiming that he misused his powers under s.81 of Schedule 2 of the Cayman Islands Constitution Order 2009 in the enactment of the Civil Partnership Act 2020 (“CPA”).
She argued that she should win because the Director of Legal Aid should have exercised her discretion to waive the contribution under s.19(4) of the Act and that the Director make an error in the calculation of Anglin's contribution amount based on her disposable income.
The judge made a note that in her Summons Anglin named the wrong parties but the Director did not object to the procedural irregularity. Her attorney also failed to notify the Director of the application. At some point, Anglin bypassed her attorney and wrote to the court directly inquiring why her hearing had been set aside for another matter. The judge explained that Anglin's attorney took 15 days to get back to the LIsting Officer and had she spoken to her attorney she should have been advised of that.
Initially, Anglin had her legal aid application refused in September 2020 and her attorneys requested the Director to reconsider the decision promising to cap the amount at $8,500 for the initial stages of the lawsuit. She Director agreed to the request but Anglin had to contribute $4,000 into the Legal Aid Funds.
Anglin then sought an extension of her legal aid and the judge acknowledged that she has organized fundraising events for donations towards legal costs to the bank account of the Christian Association for Civics and Political Education (the “CACPE”). She paid the initial legal aid contribution from the funds in the CACPE bank account.
In October the Director granted an extension in the amount of $8,000 and at the same time, the bank account of CACPE had $8,181.79. She was allowed to pay the $4,000 in monthly installments of $500.00. She agreed to the terms of the Legal Aid Contribution Order Agreement on October 13, 2020 and was granted leave in November 2020 for judicial review against the Governor.
In March 2021 her attorneys made an application for the further extension of legal aid to cover their ongoing work and retain Queen's Counsel citing the complexity of the issue and its “significant public importance”. They did not argue about the “appropriateness of the contribution condition” at that time. A further extension was granted for $5,000 and lead counsel was asked to review the matter and provide an opinion as to the merits and practical effect of any remedy. There was a cap of $20,000 to junior counsel.
She was to pay a contribution amount of $5,000 by or on May 14, 2021.
Anglin confirmed:
However, Darlene Oko, counsel for the Legal Aid Office pointed out that social media request for donated public funds was still visible and deposits had been made noting “donation” and not “educational purposes” as Anglin claimed. The judge noted that:
“Putting aside the potential inappropriateness of the alleged intermingling of the funds in such an account, there was a reasonable expectation on Ms. Anglin to fully explain the entries on her statements with supporting documentation if her assertion was to be given weight by the Director, especially as the Director had already directed that there was a condition requiring the ongoing accounting of the donation funds in the 7 October 2020 Legal Aid Certificate.”
Anglin had $55,000 in a Credit Union account from the sale of a property and two sources of employment income and was also receiving the tourism stipend from the government. By May when the funds were due to be paid, Angle then requested a reconsideration of the requirement for her to pay a contribution. The Director reduced the contributory amount to $4,000.
She sought to have the Director disregard her disposable include given the interest of justice and also argued that the money in the account was for other purposes and she should not have to make any contribution. She was refused and brought the following proceeding to the Grand Court.
The judge found that he did not consider the $4,000 contribution condition to be a variation – a variation meant the court had jurisdiction over the matter by way of appeal. He noted that the Director had always indicated a contribution would be required and it was not newly introduced with the granting of an extension.
Justice Williams refused to find that by reducing the amount in Anglin's favor this should allow her the right to appeal the decision “which would not have otherwise existed”. The judge also concluded that the money in the CACPE account should count towards her income for the purposes of assessing her legal aid contribution. Noting:
“It would be wrong for her to have access to such funds if they exist and retain them in the CACPE account rather than contributing those funds as intended by the donors to the publicly funded Legal Aid Fund.”
He invited the Director to review the contribution condition but also noted that would require “a full and frank accounting of the funds in the CACPE bank account” – something Anglin previously did not do.
Rupert Wheeler of KSG acted on behalf of Anglin and Darlene Oko was the legal counsel for the Director of Legal Aid.
The judicial review hearing is set for December 2021.
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