Areas of practice in Trinidad & Tobago

Pacta sunt servanda Agreements must be kept

Corporate and Commercial Law

Agreements and transactions for businesses of every kind — companies, partnerships, sole traders, and the individuals who deal with them. Contracts drafted, reviewed and negotiated. Companies formed, bought, sold and combined.

Read more → Vigilantibus non dormientibus jura subveniunt The law assists the vigilant

Corporate Compliance

Keeping a company in good standing: annual returns and Registry filings, registers and minute books, meetings and resolutions, and the restoration of companies struck off for not filing. Anti-money-laundering compliance and training for the businesses and non-profits the law requires it of.

Read more → Interest reipublicae ut sit finis litium It is in the public interest that litigation end

Civil Litigation

How a civil dispute is run, from the first letter to the enforced judgment: pre-action correspondence, the claim and defence, case management, disclosure, witness statements, trial and appeal — for most kinds of dispute.

Read more → Audi alteram partem Hear the other side

Constitutional and Administrative Law

Challenging the State: judicial review of decisions by ministries, commissions, licensing and disciplinary bodies, and constitutional claims where a fundamental right has been breached — with the three-month clock that governs the first, and the different rules that govern the second.

Read more → Ubi jus ibi remedium Where there is a right, there is a remedy

Personal Injury and Negligence

Claims for injury caused by someone else's fault: road traffic accidents, injuries at work, falls on unsafe premises, negligent professionals and claims against public bodies — and the four-year limit that governs almost all of them.

Read more → Nemo est haeres viventis No one is the heir of a living person

Wills, Probate and Administration of Estates

Wills drawn so they hold, and estates administered when someone has died: grants of probate and letters of administration from the Probate Registry, deeds of assent to pass land to the people entitled to it, resealing of grants made elsewhere in the Commonwealth, and the disputes that arise between beneficiaries.

Read more → Nemo dat quod non habet No one gives what he does not have

Conveyancing and Real Estate

Buying, selling, giving and mortgaging land in Trinidad and Tobago, under both systems of title: agreements for sale, deeds of conveyance and gift, Certificates of Title, mortgages and releases, deeds of assent, and the disputes between landlords, tenants and neighbours that land produces.

Read more → Ius soli, ius sanguinis By the soil, by the blood

Immigration Law

Work permits and the exemptions from them, permission to enter and remain and its extension, residence, citizenship and naturalisation, CARICOM skills certificates, and the defence of people facing a special inquiry or removal from Trinidad and Tobago.

Read more → Ei incumbit probatio qui dicit The burden rests on the accuser

Criminal Law

Defence from the moment of arrest: advice at the police station, bail, summary matters in the District Criminal and Traffic Court (the magistrates' court), indictable matters under the High Court procedure that replaced the preliminary enquiry, and appeals to the Court of Appeal and beyond.

Read more → Consensus, non concubitus, facit matrimonium Consent, not cohabitation, makes a marriage

Family Law

Divorce and separation, custody, access and maintenance, division of property, claims between unmarried partners, and protection orders — in the Family and Children Division of the High Court or the magistrates' court, and by agreement wherever agreement can be reached.

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