Legal battle brews over State’s refusal to disclose legal fees

Freedom Law Chambers has launched legal action against the Attorney General and state enterprise Paria Fuel Trading Company Ltd for their refusal to provide information requested under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) on legal fees.

In two separate FOIA requests — one from social activist Ravi Balgobin Maharaj to the AG’s Office, and another from former Petrotrin employee Anthony Dopson to Paria Fuel — sought information on fees paid to attorneys retained by the respective entities.

Both requests were met with refusals citing concerns over crime and the attorneys' safety.

Maharaj’s FOIA request, dated November 4, sought the names of attorneys paid legal fees by the AG’s Office in fiscal 2024, the amounts paid, and copies of the invoices. The response, received on January 14, 2025, declined to share the full details, citing concerns about extortion and personal safety.

“Given the prevailing crime situation where extortion has been increasing and lawyers have become more frequent targets for criminals, it is unreasonable to disclose the public fees earned by lawyers in these circumstances,” the Office of the AG said, adding that attorneys had objected to disclosure on the grounds of safety and security.

The letter, signed by the permanent secretary, further suggested disclosing this information could expose attorneys to “defamatory, uninformed and degrading statements” and that such fees had historically been treated as private and confidential.

Instead, the AG’s office provided redacted invoices, omitting names, addresses and contact details, claiming the information constituted “personal information” under the FOIA.

Similarly, Dopson’s January 8 request to Paria Fuel for details of fees paid to attorneys representing the company during the commission of enquiry (CoE) into the Paria diving tragedy was denied.

On February 6, Paria’s response said while there was public interest in disclosing the sums paid, it “does not trump the personal safety of the individual attorneys-at-law.” Paria contended that making the payment details public could place the lawyers at risk, given the crime climate.

The company noted that while such information might not fall squarely within exempt documents under the FOIA, section 30 (1) allowed withholding information if its disclosure would involve the “unreasonable disclosure of personal information.”

Paria suggested it might reconsider its position if Dopson provided an undertaking not to publicise the information.

However, in response, Freedom Law Chambers, led by former AG Anand Ramlogan, SC, challenged both decisions.

In a pre-action protocol letter on February 7, attorney Aasha Ramlal dismissed Paria’s reasons as “untenable, arbitrary and irrational.” She argued that payments made by a public authority for legal representation could never be considered “personal information.”

“This is not the ‘personal information’ of the lawyer who has been paid. It is the business of the people whose monies have been used to pay them,” Ramlal said. She added that the suggestion that lawyers could become criminal targets due to fee disclosure was “speculative and insufficient to render disclosure unreasonable.

“The entire population is facing the terrifying crime situation…The State is responsible for national security and the safety of citizens and hence it cannot pray in aid of its own failure to protect and secure the citizenry as a reason to deny our client the right to access information concerning the recipients of public funds,” Ramlal said.

Ramlal also reminded the AG’s Office that former AG Faris Al-Rawi had previously disclosed legal fees paid to external attorneys from 2010-June 2021, setting a precedent for transparency.

She also noted that Paria had previously disclosed legal fees paid to one law firm during the CoE, amounting to $8.9 million.

Ramlal stressed that legal fees paid by public entities in high-profile matters like the Paria diving tragedy, where allegations of negligence and misconduct were rampant, must be disclosed in the interest of accountability and good governance.

Freedom Law Chambers has given both Paria and the AG 30 days to respond to its pre-action protocol letters. Should the two entities fail to comply, Freedom Law intends to seek several court orders, including declarations that the decisions to refuse access were illegal and breached the FOIA and that Maharaj and Dopson were entitled to the information.

They are also seeing an order of mandamus to compel Paria and the AG’s Office to provide the information within seven days of the court’s decision as well as an order of certiorari to quash the decisions refusing full disclosure.