BASSETERRE, ST. KITTS – For the consecutive working day, prominent defense attorney Chesley Hamilton pounded the pavement in Basseterre demanding that Prime Minister Dr. the Hon. Timothy Harris and Attorney General, Sen. the Hon. Vincent Byron, pay him legal fees owed to him for capital cases.
Hamilton demonstrated Monday outside the headquarters of Team Unity, headed by Dr. Harris. The former Peoples Action Movement (PAM) Chairman demonstrated for hours on Friday outside Government Headquarters while the St. Kitts and Nevis National Assembly was in session.
His placards on the back and front read: “PAY ME THEN VEX WID ME,” and “LOL AG Team UNITY PAY ME, ME 7 MONTHS RENT”
It is believed that the issue of rent relates to the monies owed by Team Unity for renting the top floor as its headquarters in the two-storey building, which also houses DIGICEL on the ground floor at the top of Fort Street.
Hamilton told WINNFM Friday: “I’m here doing a peaceful protest, I’m not begging anything I’ve already worked. I’ve been assigned by the court to do about 40 capital matters, I have not been paid for a number of them and I’ve been underpaid in some. I am here protesting because when a government says that it has a surplus of over $100 million dollars and won’t pay me for work I have done, I believe that it is unconscionable, I believe it is wicked, I believe it is wrong and it’s time for them to pay me so, I am here peacefully protesting.”
The attorney said the bills he submitted to government were not unreasonable as he was not attempting to gouge government coffers.
“They say its fair share for all, all I want is my fair share, I have worked I need to be paid, I’m not begging anything. You do the math, I have lost track, and it’s over 40 cases the range as I said is between $50,000 to $75,000 per case. There was one case I did for two months, I started at 8 o’clock in the morning and sometimes we went until 9 o’clock in the night, two months out of my office. I capped my bill at $75,000 dollars. So it is not that I’m trying to fleece the government out of any money, I have already worked. I have been more than reasonable, I understand that this is state funds so I’m not going to charge millions of dollars or hundreds of thousands of dollars, if there is a bill that reaches that it’s because there was more than one trial. There was one case that had 5 beginnings, three different trials in the high court; there was another one with four trials. So if a bill reaches that point it’s because there was more than one trial.”
Hamilton explained that the court assigned attorneys to cases, the government was obligated to pay for that defense.
Vowing to “Name and shame Dem,” Hamilton recently took to the airwaves of Freedom Fm’s Issues to demand that the Team Unity Government (TUG) pay him monies owed.
He told Freedom FM that he is aware that a current government minister was awarded EC$1.5 million in an election petition matter in Nevis and was quickly paid by the Team Unity Government of Dr. Harris
Attorney Hamilton is a former PAM candidate who opposed Dr. Harris in two previous elections.
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