Oct 01 - Legal Aid Spat Continues
In the latest spat between Government and Opposition regarding legal aid, the Government has insisted that Mr. Figueras continues to hide behind ‘the fact that the GSD did nothing in sixteen years to assist either the legal profession or court users and defendants on legal aid or legal assistance’.
The Government accepts Mr. Figueras’ insistence that legal aid rules were changed in 2012, with four defendants being beneficiaries of that change. The Government noted that the ‘change was made following specific advice given to the Government by James Neish of Triay Stagnetto Neish, the firm of which the Deputy Leader of the Opposition, Damon Bossino, is a partner. In effect, Mr Bossino is a party to the advice given to Government and on which Government acted and must necessarily disagree with the position the Opposition is taking.’
No.6 added, in a statement released this morning that it appears the opposition member ‘is confirming that had the GSD been in office, they would not have followed that advice, they would not have changed the rules and they would have been happy for the case to collapse and the defendants to walk free.’
The Chief Minister tweeted on the topic this morning, noting, 'bottom line if we hadn't changed the legal aid fees for the Marrache case it would have collapsed. That would have been bad for Gib.'
