Erroneous story regarding legal action in Dubai

I was notified today of a story which appeared in relation to a legal client of mine, the Dublin law firm Anthony Joyce & Co, and two groups of investors whom I also represent. The story appeared on AIB’s ForEx news site after it was fed in via a feed from BusinessWorld.com. The story was written by BusinessWorld but with confusion over two different legal groups of investors and two separate actions.

Here are the corrections from the errors in the story below, which has now been taken down by AIBForEx and Business World, but may have been picked up by investors earlier.

1. Anthony Joyce is currently representing a group of investors called KRI, these are investors in the Kensington Royale Development in Sports City. He is no longer representing the Concerned Dubai Sports City Investors Group, more recently known as the Dubai Action Group, and they are in no way connected to the current action being undertaken by the firm.

2. Whilst Anthony Joyce is currently liaising with MED there are no plans for him or any representative of his firm to travel to Dubai.

3. KRI does not consist of two separate groups, from the Republic of Ireland and Britain, they consist of investors from eight different countries across the globe.

4. At the moment no developer in Dubai is being sued by Anthony Joyce & Co, the KRI Group, or the Dubai Action Group / Concerned Dubai Sports City Investors Group.

If anyone requires any details on either of the parties concerned above then please contact Simon Palmer of Republic PR.

This was the story that appeared….

Irish investors sue Dubai developers

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Kensington Royale, Dubai Sports City – Middle East Development LLC

Along with solicitor Anthony Joyce,  I recently met investors from all over Ireland whom have bought property in the Kensington Royale development in the Dubai Sports City development, which is being marketed by MED (Middle Eastern Development LLC).

'Progress' shot from MED's website July 2010 (please click image to zoom)

The investors agreed to form an action group and appoint Anthony Joyce to act on their behalf and Republic to help them with the media and promotion to other investors on line. This is the sixth overseas property group Anthony Joyce are representing.

The action group is now successfully taking shape and we are receiving multiple daily requests from other investors in Kensington Royale who want to get involved. We have been contacted by over 30 investors from numerous countries around the world.

Anthony Joyce has now contacted MED and is seeking answers and exploring the groups options.

If any further investors would like to join the Group then please contact me on simon@republicpr.ie or telephone on +353 1 282 2504. For further details please see http://www.republicpr.ie.

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Getting a case admitted to Dublin’s Commercial Court can mean a much quicker legal process

Guest post by solicitor Anthony Joyce of Dublin legal firm Anthony Joyce & Co.

Question: I have heard that having a case admitted to the Commercial Court can be a much faster method of obtaining a resolution – is this true? And what are the conditions that must be met to have a case admitted?

Answer: Yes it is true, if you are currently involved in a commercial dispute, having your case admitted to the Commercial Court (also known as the High Court Commercial List) can allow you to resolve a dispute more quickly and effectively than through the normal High Court procedures. The Commercial Court is effectively a fast track of the High Court reserved for commercial cases.

Cases which are admitted to the Commercial Court start and finish in a short time frame, on average, within twenty one weeks of the transfer of proceedings.

An application to have a case admitted to the Commercial Court can be made at any time, but the rules of the Court provide for a stay to be put on proceedings for a period of 28 days to allow mediation, conciliation or arbitration to take place.

In order to gain entry to the Commercial Court the dispute must fall into one of the following categories:

1. Current financial disputes where the claim, or counterclaim, is not less than €1,000,000 can be admitted to the Commercial Court. However, there has been some speculation that the minimum entry level of may be increased to €2,500,000.
2. Any application or proceedings under the Arbitration Acts where the value of any claim or counterclaim is not less than €1,000,000.
3. Any legal dispute relating to a patents, a trade mark, copyright, industrial design or a case relating to ‘passing off’, for example where a competitor has tried to ‘pass off’ your product as their own.
4. Any appeal or application for a judicial review of a previous decision or determination that judge considers it suitable for admission to the Commercial Court.

There is also a catch all condition that can allow any case to heard where the Judge considers it appropriate for entry into the Commercial Court. But, whilst it does have a broad discretion to admit cases, it must be remembered that it is at the discretion of the High Court and even if your case falls into one of the above categories this does not automatically entitle you to entry.

Once your case has been admitted the it runs quickly because of the rules which provide for what is termed ‘detailed case management’, this ensures a strict timetable for any cases has to be met by all parties involved and they are fined if these deadlines are not met – this is why the Commercial Court moves so much faster than the High Court

The Commercial Court in Dublin has been a great success. It has garnered an international reputation as a Court that is simple to access and where disputes can be settled in a swift and cost effective manner compared to Courts abroad.

The success of the Commercial Court has promoted Ireland as a country where any commercial disputes arising can be resolved quickly and effectively. An efficient legal system and settling of disputes in this manner is vitally important in order to be able to attract international business. The Commercial Court is something that Ireland should be very proud off.

by Anthony Joyce, Principal, Anthony Joyce & Co, Dublin – www.anthonyjoyce.ie

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DNA test proves Eritrean girl Martina Padwick is Irish

The Dublin solicitor Anthony Joyce (disclosure: he is a client) has been working on  an incredible case recently, the results of which are featured on the front page of today’s Sunday Times  (link and article below).  Martina Padwick is a six year old Eritrean girl whose Mother Martha has been trying to get her right to an Irish passport recognised by the Department of Foreign Affairs because her father is the late Martin Padwick who was a soldier serving with the Irish Amy in Eritrea.

DNA tests have now confirmed that Martina is Martin’s daughter and she can now rightly claim her Irish passport. This case has huge ramifications for the Irish Government and the Army – who knows how many other Irish children are elsewhere in the developing countries.

Anthony Joyce, Principal solicitor of Dublin based law firm Anthony Joyce & Co, who acted on behalf of Martina on a pro-bono basis and today issued this statement, says:

“Today’s Sunday Times featured a front page story on Martina Padwick the Eritrean girl who is the daughter of the late Martin Padwick, a former Irish soldier with the Irish UN peace keeping force in Eritrea. After a long battle for an Irish passport and citizenship of the Republic of Ireland, and following protracted negotiations with the Departmemt of Foreign Affairs, we are pleased to announce the Department of Foreign Affairs have now accepted that Martina is the daughter of the late Martin Padwick entitling her to an Irish passport.

“For all of her life Martina has been living in poverty in Eritrea and her mother Martha has suffered discrimination for being the mother of a foreign child. Their situation was so desperate that Martina was close to having to give her daughter to a local orphanage to ensure her wellbeing. Following the conclusive proof that she is now an Irish citizen she will be entitled to an Irish passport. Martina is now able to come to Ireland where she can be educated, have proper healthcare and other benefits of being an Irish Citizen.

Anthony will be commenting on these issues in more detail shortly.

Here is a link to the story and it is also pasted in below.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/ireland/article6991201.ece

DNA TEST PROVES ERITREAN GIRL IS IRISH

A six-year-old African girl is to be given an Irish passport following DNA tests that prove she is the daughter of an Irish soldier who died before she was born.

The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) had refused to accept that Martina Padwick was the daughter of Martin Padwick, a soldier from Cork who died in December 2002 shortly after returning from a United Nations (UN) peacekeeping mission in Asmara, the Eritrean capital.

The Irish government may now be required to offer her protection and make provision for her education, as all Irish children are legally entitled to free primary schooling.

The existence of the child, born in June 2003, has been known to the DFA since 2004, but officials refused to issue a passport on the basis that Martha Woldu Hagos, her mother, needed to “establish by formal means” the father’s identity. She met Padwick while working in the kitchen at the UN compound in Asmara.

The DFA agreed to carry out a DNA test last October after The Sunday Times highlighted the case.

Hagos said: “The DFA wrote to me last week to say the DNA test had proved that Martin was Martina’s father. I don’t know what to say, I am so happy. Actually I am the happiest woman in the whole of Eritrea right now.”

Anthony Joyce, a Dublin-based solicitor who represents Hagos and her daughter, claimed they had suffered while waiting for the government to recognise Martina as an Irish citizen. “Martha suffered discrimination in her community as a result of having a white child. She was living in poverty, and at one stage she considered putting Martina into an orphanage where she could be guaranteed food and shelter,” said Joyce.

“Martina’s case should send a warning to the DFA. In certain circumstances the government is obliged to have ‘due regard for the natural and imprescriptible rights of the child’ under the constitution. This case highlights the need for the state to prioritise applications for Irish passports from minors living abroad.”

Brian O’Shea, the Labour party spokesman on military affairs who raised Martina’s plight in the Dail, criticised the DFA’s handling of the case. “No Irish citizen should ever be treated in such a manner,” he said.

“This child was forced to live in what can be best described as adverse conditions in Eritrea for years, although she was an Irish citizen. The state had a responsibility to Martina, but didn’t fulfil its obligations to this girl. Any proposal by this child and her mother to come to Ireland should be treated as sympathetically as possible.”

Billy Timmins, the Fine Gael spokesman on foreign affairs, called on Micheál Martin, the foreign affairs minister, to introduce new procedures to ensure similar cases were dealt with more compassion.

John Weakliam, country director for Vita in Eritrea, an Irish charity that helped Hagos, believes there may be other children living in Asmara who were fathered by Irish peacekeepers. “God knows how many soldiers fathered children who still await their birth rights,” he said.

“There is a popular perception in Ireland that African women are queuing up to conceive and become a burden on our state. On the contrary, these mothers and their children suffer discrimination at home.”

Neil Nolan, a spokesman for the defence forces, said the military was aware of the case, but was unable to intervene. The DFA refused to comment.

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Kuvera Action Group – full meeting this week

This is an announcement for members of the Kuvera Action Group: there is a full meeting of the Group this week at the City West Hotel, Saggart Dublin, 7.30pmon Thursday 10th December.

Two members of the Committee were in India last week so you will receive a full update on the trip as well as progress on other elements of the case from dublin solictor Anthony Joyce.

Kuvera Action Group

The Group was formed by Irish residents who purchased properties in an residential investment in the Indian town of Rudrapur, through Irish overseas property company Kuvera.

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