By Andre Bagoo Wednesday, October 7 2009

LAWYERS acting on behalf of Udecott and on behalf of the Uff Commission of Inquiry yesterday engaged in a series of talks aimed at coming to an agreement on a new consent order to replace the one ordered last week Friday which froze the proceedings.

Lead attorney for Udecott Andrew Goddard QC yesterday remained locked in meetings, but counsel for the inquiry said both sides had been engaged in talks with a view to agreeing on the exact terms of a new consent order to replace the one signed-off by Justice Mira Dean-Armorer last Friday.

“We are exchanging documents and talking on the phone about this,” said Kerwin Garcia, counsel for the inquiry. He noted, the parties hope to meet on the issue once they come closer to a final agreement on the new terms of the consent order.

The negotiations came after Attorney General John Jeremie on Monday issued an instruction to the Udecott executive chairman Calder Hart to have Udecott go back to court and amend the order. Last Friday, Dean-Armorer granted the consent order after both sides in the judicial review matter engaged in behind-the-scenes negotiations for two hours.

The order gave the undertaking that, “there will be no reinstatement or resumption of the inquiry by way of further hearings or reception of evidence or the preparation and/or publication and/or dissemination of any report(s).”

However it varied from one which counsel for the inquiry had offered to enter into voluntarily, on instruction from English solicitors Charles Russell. That order would have omitted the word “preparation” and thus effectively allow inquiry chairman Professor John Uff to complete an interim report, pending the final determination of the several legal challenges brought by Udecott against the inquiry.

Up until yesterday afternoon, the talks had reportedly not been completed, with counsel for the inquiry unable to say when or if lawyers for both sides would approach the High Court for a variance of last Friday’s order.