The Government of St Helena has settled a constitutional challenge to the Civil Litigation (Costs) Ordinance 2025 and the Civil Litigation (Costs) Notice 2025 by amending both instruments and paying the Claimant’s costs of the claim.
Mario Peters is one of more than a hundred victims of clinical negligence by a resident doctor who carried out unnecessary and harmful surgeries on St Helena between July 2016 and June 2021. Through Hugh James Solicitors, acting on conditional fee agreements, the victim cohort sought to recover damages from the Government of St Helena. Having initially engaged in good faith to negotiate a compensation protocol for the entire cohort, the Government then abandoned those negotiations.
In response, Mr Peters and other members of the cohort filed claims before the Supreme Court of St Helena. During the course of those claims, the Government of St Helena enacted legislation with the effect of rendering all Hugh James’s existing CFAs unenforceable, limiting the recovery of litigation costs to a level that was not commercially viable, and rendering ATE insurance unavailable on island. The practical effect was to deprive the victim cohort of legal representation and deny them access to justice.
Mr Peters brought a claim for judicial review of the Civil Litigation (Costs) Ordinance 2025 and the Civil Litigation (Costs) Notice 2025 on grounds that they violated his rights protected by sections 10(10) (right to a fair hearing) and 19(1) (protection from arbitrary deprivation of property) of the Constitution of St Helena.
In light of the constitutional challenge, the Governor of St Helena amended the Costs Notice and the Legislative Council of St Helena amended the Costs Ordinance to remedy the identified defects in the legislation.
Hugh James continue to act for the victim cohort in their claims for damages.
Toby Fisher acted in the judicial review for Mario Peters, alongside Marc Willems KC and Jennifer Dickinson of Cobden House Chambers.