7 News Belize

Ernest Staine’s Continued Legal Difficulties
posted (February 17, 2015)
2 week ago, news broke that 77 year-old Ernest Staine, one of the most senior legal practitioners in the country, was in trouble of being jailed for contempt of court.

That's because he has 230 thousand dollars for Rita McField - the proceeds from a land transaction. Staine was holding the money in escrow on behalf of a client for McField. He was supposed to release it when the land title was cleaned up. That happened in the middle of 2014, but he didn't hand over the money. Now almost half a year has passed and he still hasn't handed it over. Supreme Court Justice Courtney Abel gave him until the end of January to hand over the money - and still, nothing was forthcoming.

Well, he's since complied with the court's order to disclose his finances, and it doesn't paint a picture of confidence that he still has McField's money. Today, her attorney spoke with us outside of court and explained why:

Julie-Ann Ellis Bradley - Attorney for Claimant
"This information was not made available until Friday and then further information on Monday. The information unfortunately shows that though the monies were wired to Mr. Staine's account, none of those account have more than $20,000 in it. We are speaking about a claim for a sum of $230,000 which was the reaming sums that Mr. Staine held and when you add all the monies indicated in those accounts, there is perhaps more than $30,000 spread across all accounts. It is very unfortunate. It is against the code of ethics that attorneys are required to abide by and the challenge is that though there are processes available for enforcement of claims such as this and those processes we will have to look to in order to start to recover the sums. Prior to today, it was not clear whether or not the sums were there to be paid over, but it is evidently clear today the sums are not in those accounts at least. We have had no opportunity to check or to verify that that information is complete and the court has further ordered that Mr. Staine is now required to not only say in an affidavit what he has, but give supporting documentation in the form of bank accounts and papers proving ownership of property."

Eamon Courtenay, SC - President, Bar Association of Belize
"I have received a number of call from members of the bar who expressed their concerns for the welfare of Mr. Staine who was representing himself, which h is never advisable and so I contacted colleagues and people agree to come forward to provide assistance to him. I want to make it very clear that that relates only to the contempt matter. That is a very serious matter and it appeared to us that based on what we were able to gather that Mr. Staine was in need of legal representation. With respect to the judgment against Mr. Staine, as Mr. Barrow has indicated, I think steps are being taken to ensure that the judgment is paid at the earliest possible time and I do not wish to make any comment on the obligation of Mr. Staine to honor that judgment which I think nk is very clear. But from the bar's perspective, I can say that this is a matter of serious concern and the fact that Mr. Staine was brought before the court at the risk of going to prison today, we wanted to signal to the court and in deed to the public, that the bar association is very concern about this type of order being made against a member of the profession."

Denys Barrow - Attorney for Ernest Staine, Defendant
"You all were present in court and you see that it is a very grave and serious matter that we are dealing with. The bar association takes in very seriously. Mr. Staine takes it very seriously and we hope that an outcome will emerged which will be broadly satisfactory and will be the right outcome. There is a judgments which has been pronounced against Mr. Staine and the principal issue now is how to go about enforcing that judgment. So, that is a matter which the court dealing with. Mr. Staine will try his best to assist in that process to allow the money to be collected to have the money paid."

As you heard, the President of the Bar Association of Belize told the media that there is also a complaint lodged against Lawyer Staine at the General Legal Council, which is still not operating. We'll keep following how this case plays out, and we'll update you accordingly.

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