Litigation Experience
The firm has acquired great depth of litigation experience across a diverse range of fields over the years. Its head of chambers, Godfrey Smith SC, has appeared in the most high-profile, high-value cases in Belize. He successfully challenged the constitutionality of the state’s nationalization of Belize’s most profitable corporation, a telephone company worth several hundred million dollars, in Boyce v Minister of Public Utilities (2012), a lawsuit that dragged on for close to six years.
He fearlessly moved an urgent, last minute application, over the weekend, to block parliament from passing the controversial 9th constitutional amendment bill in Castillo v Attorney-General (2011). As 7 News reported “Godfrey Smith got the fastest appeal hearing probably in history; a single judge of the court of appeal agreed to hear it on Saturday morning. No Belizean court has ever convened so early in the morning and none has ever convened on Sunday either.”
He and Lord Goldsmith QC, former Attorney-General of the United Kingdom, jointly represented the Interested Parties – the International Commission of Jurists and the Commonwealth Lawyers Association – in successfully challenging the constitutionality of the law which criminalized homosexuality in Belize in Unibam v Attorney-General (2012).
As Attorney-General of Belize, Godfrey appeared along with Edward Fitzgerald QC of the English Bar, and successfully defended a challenge to the building of the $50 million Chalillo Dam in Bacongo v Department of Environment (2003), a landmark environmental case regularly cited across the Commonwealth Caribbean in which the Privy Council described his submissions as “eloquent”. He represented Oceana against The Minister of the Environment (2012), in a groundbreaking decision that major petroleum exploration licenses were issued in breach of environmental regulations.
The Court of Appeal in Fort Street Tourism Limited v Attorney General (2008) said Smith “argued with commendable economy and clarity” in a case in the tourism sector that attracted considerable public interest. He also secured declarations for the Belize Tourism Industry Association that Norwegian Cruise Lines’ Belize company had breached environmental laws in building their $100 million cruise ship facility.
Meenavalli v Matute (2014) the biggest medical negligence case emanating from Belize, the Caribbean Court of Justice characterized Smith’s representation as “robust advocacy”.
The firm has been at the forefront of cutting edge, seminal cases, like Lavern Longsworth v R (2014) and Felicia Chen, pro bono, in which the defence of Battered Woman Syndrome was accepted as a defence for the first time in the Commonwealth Caribbean. It represented the Bar Association (2015) in challenging constitutional amendments introducing short-term contractual tenure for court of appeal judges and persuaded the Court of Appeal to reverse itself on a previous ruling in Mejia v Attorney General, and ruled that where a trial judge had improperly exercised his discretion an ouster clause barring an appeal to the Court of Appeal would not protect the decision.
Smith appeared as Attorney General in Meerabux v AG (2001) and successfully defended the Governor General’s decision to inquire into whether a sitting Supreme Court judge should be removed from office. The firm has also challenged the refusal of the Judicial and Legal Services Commission to inquire into a complaint that a sitting judge be removed from office.
The firm successfully represented the claimant in Belize Bank v Luke Espat (2015), in which the court awarded a $27 million judgment.
Marine Parade Chambers has enjoyed enviable success in representing clients from the United States, Slovakia, Argentina, Pakistan and the Bahamas in extradition proceedings and is well-know in this area of law.
