Judge orders jail for Trinidadian attorney who owes client

Less than six months after she was spared jail time when she paid more than $100,000 in compensation to a client, suspended Trinidadian attorney Kathy Ann Mottley is facing a year behind bars if she fails to pay twice that amount to someone else.

Trinidad and Tobago publication, Newsday, reports that on Monday, Justice Avason Quinlan-Williams ordered that Mottley “be arrested and imprisoned” at the Port of Spain prison for failing to pay the $209,142.02 she owes Caunte Antoine.

It is alleged that Mottley received the benefit of an overpayment to a client.

A complaint was also made to the disciplinary committee of the Law Association, which ordered her, on October 18, 2016, to repay the excess money she received.

Quinlan-Williams ordered that Mottley shall be immediately released from prison if she pays the $209,142.02 together with interest at the rate of $28.65. She also has to pay the costs of Antoine’s application.

Newsday was told that up to Thursday afternoon, Mottley had not been arrested, nor had any money been paid.

In December, Mottley was one of four lawyers suspended from practising law in Trinidad and Tobago.

Previously, Mottley was ordered to be committed to prison for twice failing to repay money to a former client. She eventually paid the full sum and was spared 60 days in jail.

Antoine is represented by attorney Larry Boyer and Lee Merry.

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4 Comments

  1. Mel
    March 2, 2021

    Some of those avocas in DA need to get that same fate for stealing clients’ money.

  2. Nadia Buke
    March 2, 2021

    These lawyers can really embarrass the profession due to their greediness.

    • badbaje
      March 3, 2021

      Hello Nadia.

      While I agree with your observation, I must say this.
      Lawyers like her are actually proving what many have been saying about lawyers for many years.

  3. Frankly
    March 2, 2021

    This would never happen here in Dominica. Just look at all these mis-deeds that Isidore gets away with. Who is going to sentence him? Clients are even afraid to take him to court in the first place…..allegedly, because he has ways of silencing his challengers.

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