News just coming to hand from Trinidad & Tobago, indicates that former High Court Judge and former Justice Minister in that country Herbert Volney has died.
After graduating in 1976 with a Bachelor of Law degree, Mr. Volney was admitted to the Hugh Wooding Law School and was called to the Bar of Trinidad and Tobago as a barrister in 1978. In 1979, he was recruited by then-Attorney General Selwyn Richardson to work in the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions where he served for ten years. He retired as Assistant Director of Public Prosecutions. In 1994 he was recruited by Chief Justice Clinton Bernard and appointed a judge of the Supreme Court. By the time of his retirement to stand for the constituency of St Joseph in the General Elections of 2010, he had presided in over 400 trials at the higher level and had worked extensively in the Port of Spain, San Fernando, and Scarborough sittings of the Criminal Assizes. Mr. Volney was the Head boy of his alma mater St Mary’s Academy and President of the Guild of Undergraduates at Cave Hill Campus of the University of West Indies.
Between 1994 and 2010, Volney was a judge of the Supreme Court of Trinidad and Tobago. Volney was a member of parliament, and he became Justice Minister in Kamla Persad-Bissessar‘s cabinet.
He was dismissed in September 2012, being one of eleven ministers who were fired by the former government, including his successor at the Ministry of Justice Christlyn Moore, before the leading party lost the September 2015 General Elections. He was criticized at the time by Persad-Bissessar for having allegedly misled the Cabinet over the early proclamation of Section 34 of the Administration of Justice (Indictable Offences) Act; however, British Queen’s Counsel Edward Fitzgerald argued during a hearing in the High Court in January 2013 that Volney did not mislead his Cabinet colleagues. He appeared with Persad-Bissessar at a public UNC event in May 2013.
Nature Isle News (NIN) is following this story and give more details when it becomes available.