NASSAU, Bahamas (BIS): Dion Foulkes, Minister of Maritime Affairs and Labour has announced that the Bahamas government will make a $1 million dollar ex gratia payment to the victims of the 2003 collision between the motor vessels Sea Hauler and United Star. A comprehensive investigation was conducted. read more...

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ROAD TOWN, BVI: A court in the British Virgin Islands has confiscated more than US$45 million from a Bermuda-based mutual fund which pleaded guilty to serious fraud-related crimes. Justice Indra Hariprashad-Charles ordered that $45.5 million be confiscated from IPOC International Growth Fund Ltd. read more...

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KINGSTON, Jamaica (JIS): Prime Minister, Bruce Golding, has said that the government is committed to the process of justice reform in Jamaica and has outlined plans to improve the justice system. Golding said that the justice system is an area that has suffered from lack of resources. read more...

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CASTRIES, St Lucia: The OECS Secretariat has announced that on April 24 the Secretariat communicated to the Lord High Chancellor, Jack Straw, a recommendation for the appointment of Justice Hugh Anthony Rawlins, to the position of Chief Justice of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court. read more...

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KINGSTON, Jamaica (JIS): Director of Public Prosecutions, (DPP) Paula Llewellyn, has called on the Jamaican media to ensure accuracy when reporting on matters concerning the administration of justice. The DPP said that media houses should ensure that accuracy and research is not sacrificed due to expediency. read more...

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WASHINGTON, USA (Bloomberg): Alexander & Baldwin Inc., the parent of ocean-transport company Matson Navigation, and Crowley Maritime Corp. said they are part of a US Justice Department probe into shipping practices to Puerto Rico. At least three maritime operators are being questioned. read more...

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MIAMI, USA (Reuters): A Miami jury has awarded almost $253 million in a wrongful death case against Cuba, the biggest such penalty to date against the communist government, local media reported on Saturday. The Cuban government chose not to be represented in the courtroom, the Miami Herald said. read more...

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GEORGE TOWN, Cayman Islands: Caribbean mobile tele-communications operator Digicel has welcomed a decision of the Cayman Islands Court of Appeal delivered on Thursday in which the court dismissed judicial review proceedings initiated by Cable & Wireless. read more...

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NEW YORK, USA (Bloomberg): Two Bear Stearns Cos. feeder funds that collapsed along with two of its bankrupt hedge funds won permission to wind down in the Cayman Islands. Chief Justice Anthony Smellie of the Grand Court of the Cayman Islands ruled February 22 that the funds will liquidate there. read more...

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ROAD TOWN, BVI: The Judicial Education Institute (JEI) of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court (ECSC) is hosting its first Seminar on the Judicial Management of International Commercial Litigation in the British Virgin Islands from Thursday. The workshop is funded by the Canadian International Development Agency. read more...

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LONDON, England (Reuters): A UK judge has overturned a decision to freeze $12 billion of Venezuelan assets awarded to Exxon Mobil in a setback to the oil giant's fight to win compensation for a seized oil project but a boost for leftist President Hugo Chavez. Venezuela's government bond prices rallied after the ruling. read more...

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ST GEORGE’S, Grenada: The Court of Appeal of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court on Wednesday dismissed an appeal by the Prime Minister of Grenada Keith Mitchell in relation to a libel action commenced by him last year against Lloyd Noel and Cayman Net Ltd, the parent company of Caribbean Net News. read more...

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MIAMI, USA (Reuters): Two Caribbean smugglers who were designated by the White House as international drug kingpins were convicted on smuggling charges and could face life in prison, US prosecutors said on Wednesday. Jamaican Leebert Ramcharan led a sophisticated drug smuggling organization. read more...

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LONDON, England: The Privy Council in London has allowed appeals in two death penalty cases referred to it as the ultimate court of appeal from Caribbean regional courts, one from Trinidad and Tobago and the other from Belize. In both cases, the convictions were called into question, rather than the sentences. read more...

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KINGSTON, Jamaica (JIS): Prime Minister Bruce Golding has appointed a 12-member committee to review Jamaica's libel and slander laws, but what are some of the critical issues surrounding the matter? Golding had ordered the review to facilitate greater openness and transparency in governance. read more...

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MIAMI, USA (Reuters): A multibillion-dollar battle over property confiscated after Cuba's 1959 revolution edged closer this week with the retirement of veteran leader Fidel Castro, a leading lawyer for Cuban exiles believes. "Historically, it's a milestone," Miami lawyer Nicolas Gutierrez told Reuters. read more...

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ROAD TOWN, BVI: Stakeholders from the British Virgin Islands' courts, the public and private bars and senior civil servants recently met with regional court officials to discuss proposed changes to the Eastern Caribbean’s existing judiciary structure. The proposed plan calls for an administrative merger. read more...

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MIAMI, USA (AFP): A Cuban-American lawmaker called on the United States to indict Cuba's Fidel Castro after his decision to step aside, over the fatal shooting down of two airplanes in 1996. Americans Carlos Acosta, Armando Alejandre and Mario de la Pena and Pablo Morales, a US resident, died on the planes. read more...

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BASSETERRE, St Kitts (CUOPM): The OECS Bar Association is advocating a policy that makes it mandatory for all practicing lawyers to become members of their respective Bar Associations and has called on member countries to implement the Legal Profession Bill, which was among the agenda items.... read more...

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CARACAS, Venezuela (Bloomberg): Exxon Mobil Corp. waited 24 hours to inform Venezuela's state oil company of a court order freezing a New York bank account, a tactic that netted $242 million. The world's biggest oil company postponed serving the order to block the account until Venezuela freed up the money. read more...

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CASTRIES, St. Lucia: OECS Member Countries celebrated another milestone achievement on Friday 8th February, 2007, with the launching of a book entitled “Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court-Model Regional Court”, which documents the Court’s growth and development over the past 40 years. read more...

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PHILADELPHIA, USA (Bloomberg): Morgan, Lewis & Bockius won a legal malpractice case brought by a client that accused the largest Philadelphia-based law firm of giving bad advice about sales to Cuba in violation of the US trade embargo. The verdict came after a 3-week trial in Philadelphia. read more...

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ROAD TOWN, BVI: Several matters were discussed when British Virgin Islands Premier Ralph O’Neal, received a courtesy visit on Tuesday from the outgoing Acting Chief Justice of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court (ECSC) Brian Alleyne. Alleyne is expected to retire from the ECSC in the next three months. read more...

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ST CROIX, USVI: Delegates to the US Virgin Islands Constitutional Convention meeting on St Croix have unanimously selected Stetson University College of Law to assist them in drafting a constitution for the island colony after Professor Dorthea Beane made a pro bono offer of free assistance to the delegates recently. read more...

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PROVIDENCIALES, Turks and Caicos Islands: Court proceedings in the Turks and Caicos islands have stepped up and gone high tech. On Monday, a set of court hearings were conducted via video link from the Magistrate Court in Providenciales, and Her Majesty's Prison in Grand Turk. read more...

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NEW YORK, USA (Bloomberg): Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, the largest Philadelphia-based law firm with 1,400 attorneys, gave advice regarding sales to Cuba under the US trade embargo that led to a criminal investigation, a lawyer for an ex-client has argued. Dan and Stefan Brodie sued Morgan Lewis for legal malpractice. read more...

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LOS ANGELES, USA: Terrified travelers on the Crown Princess cruise ship suffered broken bones and post-traumatic stress syndrome when their dream vacation in the Caribbean turned nightmarish in 2006. The Crown Princess listed dramatically eleven miles at sea off the coast of Florida on July 18, 2006. read more...

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AMSTERDAM (Reuters): The UN's highest court ruled on Thursday that a 1928 treaty that awarded three isolated Caribbean islands to Colombia was still valid so it could not rule on a bid by Nicaragua for sovereignty over them. However, the International Court of Justice said it did have jurisdiction to adjudicate on other islets. read more...

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KINGSTON, Jamaica (OPM): Prime Minister, Bruce Golding, has directed an eleven-member committee to undertake a comprehensive review of Jamaica's Libel and Slander Act. At a meeting with the committee, Golding reiterated that the legislation should be updated to better allow the press greater freedom. read more...

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SAN DIEGO, USA: On Monday, Stemedica Cell Technologies received unequivocal apologies from Bermudian publications the Mid-Ocean News and The Royal Gazette online regarding unsubstantiated and pejorative remarks those publications had made about the company. read more...

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