Friday, August 23, 2013

Alan Collins - English lawyer in Jersey - latest update

Part One Interview with Alan Collins (above) 22 August 2013 in Jersey - about 11 minutes


Part Two (above) about 14 minutes.

Alan Collins is the English Solicitor - Advocate from PANNONE LLP who has been engaged to represent 59 of the local litigants in the Compensation scheme of the States of Jersey (which he helped to set up) arising from the Hauth de la Garenne Childrens Home failures over many decades.

His involvement in the legal representation of child abuse victims is extensive.

It is especially interesting and significant that he is representing so many of the Jersey victims in this Island which claims its own unique jurisdiction and he plans to represent the 59 litigants before the States Inquiry that has been set up to examine the whole history of this tragic debacle.

He is to be paid for the Compensation scheme work out of Jersey public funds at an agreed rate but has so far receieved nothing. He expects to be paid for his Inquiry work in a similar way.
His role as an English lawyer acting in Jersey and being paid out of public funds amounts to "legal aid" whereas the "official" legal aid system that operates in Jersey is an antiquated mess and not fit for purpose. It is currently being examined.

Messrs Mourant Ozanne have been appointed to represent the States of Jersey in the Compensation scheme and Alan here explains how the system works.

Due to the illness of the appointed Chair for the Offiial Inquiry there will be yet more delay but Aland explains that he will be representing the abuse victims individually and as a group when it finally gets going under a newly appointed Chair.

Previous interviews with Alan can be found on this blog at 25 August and 15 December 2012 and we hope to continue to monitor progress with Alan but what a pity that Jersey lawyers and States' officials are not so willing to answer questions or to be interviewed.

As always, sensible comments are welcome and we extend an invite to any Lawyers or officials to record a response to Alan's interviews.

Unfortunately the IT gremlins are still making it difficult to set up these postings and several typos defy correction. This is the second attempt to post the whole things and it all takes time....

3 comments:

  1. Sorry to diversify
    Can anyone explain what is an international Service Entity
    And WHY they Don't pay GST and also do they pay Jersey income tax?

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  2. If you google "International service entity Jersey" whole pages of information appear courtesy of the Jersey government and Finance regulator...the pages also discuss GST and tax implications.
    Now I don't know why you have chosen to pose these questions here wheras the topic is clearly far removed from child abuse issues - but I would suggest that you direct your questions elsewhere and leave your comments in a more relevant place in future, Thanks.

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  3. Mike, you do great work. Thanks for documenting this.

    Why don't CTV or BBC Jersey conduct such lengthy interviews, as you do? Not for their broadcast output, but for their websites, as additional content?

    Clearly the interviewees have the time and inclination to be interviewed. Why does it fall to a member of the public to ask the hard questions on camera?

    ReplyDelete