UDeCOTT Chairman Calder Hart met Monday with Attorney General John Jeremie and within hours of their meeting the state organization announced that it has instructed its lawyers to amend the consent order presented in court last week.Jeremie’s intervention followed calls for his resignation because lawyers for UDeCOTT had defied him by going ahead with legal action.
A statement from UDeCOTT's public affairs coordinator Roxanne Stapleton-Whyms said the consent order "can be even further improved and its rights to fair treatment and fair play and the public’s right to information even better secured by certain adjustments to those orders."
She added that UDeCOTT's attorneys will have another look at the the consent order "with a view to identifying any areas which might be adjusted to more fully achieve this balance which is the desired objective of both UDeCOTT and the Commission of Inquiry."
Stapleton-Whyms added that once lawyers for both sides agree on the adjustments UDeCOTT will seek leave of the High Court to present them.
The statement was not clear on whether the review would include an application to the High Court to withdraw the stay on further hearings of the Uff inquiry, which is scheduled for February 2010.
That order is clear that "there will be no reinstatement or resumption of the inquiry" until the hearing in 2010. The order also bans the preparation of any report based on evidence presented to the inquiry.
President Max Richards had requested an interim report from the commission but the court action had blocked them from doing that.
Lawyers for the inquiry had given UDeCOTT the undertaking that they would give at least 28 days notice before proceeding with further hearings or the presentation of a report to the president. But the present court order prevents them from taking any further steps, including the preparation of the report.
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