Anguilla’s long standing Juris, Mr Don Mitchell, QC, has completed his appointment as an Appeal Judge in the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court, and for him it has been a noteworthy experience.
“Working as a Court of Appeal Judge for the last two-and-a-half-years, has been a remarkable privilege for me,” he told The Anguillian. “There are not many of us lawyers who get to serve in such an exalted position; and I was always conscious every time I went to sit in any island that there were so many other highly-qualified and more experienced lawyers who would have been able to do a better job than me. I always felt I had to do the best I could because I was retired. I was free of all responsibilities.
“There are many West Indians who worked in the cane fields of Trinidad and Jamaica to send me to school; and I had a responsibility to society to pay back those men and women who had worked so hard to ensure that the company that my father worked for had the ability to send me to school. That is why I have contributed up to my 68th year in service on the Bench.”
Mr Mitchell hoped that others coming after him would step in “to fill the slots that are waiting to be filled right now in the High Court and on the Bench of the Court of Appeal.” He stressed that “it is a remarkably privileged position to be in and to serve at that level.”
Prior to serving as an Appeal Judge, Mr Mitchell served as a High Court Judge for five years. “During those five years, I was able to work as a Judge in all of the nine OECS territories of our jurisdiction – from Tortola and Anguilla in the north, down to St Vincent and Grenada in the south.”
Responding to a question as to whether there was a case that presented a new experience in law to him on the Bench, he replied: “There is only one case that I have done in recent years that I consider really new,” he explained. “It was my first Sharia (Muslim) Law judgement that I had to write in the summer. It involved a lot of property in Tortola and Saudi Arabia that was owned by a company established in Tortola, with over a billion US dollars in assets. The case can be read on the Court’s website. It is called Alhamrani. I believe it is the first Sharia law judgement written anywhere in the Eastern Caribbean.”
Mr Mitchell said that the matter had now been taken to the Privy Council in London.
The former High Court and Appeal Court Judge said he was now prepared to settle down to a quiet life in Anguilla, rather than continue with a busy life on the Bench. He indicated nevertheless that he had informed the Chief Justice that he was available for emergency matters only.
Mr Mitchell will, however, be busily serving in his usual teaching capacity in Anguilla. “I consider myself a teacher in the high school,” he stated. “That’s my main occupation now – and if the Ministry of Social Services wants to have the Legal Aid Clinic back, I am willing to engage with Mr Stanford Richardson’s department to re-opening the Legal Aid Clinic and working at the Prison with Rev Lindsay Richardson. The aim would be to see whether we can get some legal aid into the prison particularly for young people who may be in need of that service. For me, that would be a full-time occupation.”
