PHILIPSBURG--On-call lawyers terminated their strike on Monday. Spokesperson for the striking pro-bono lawyers, attorney-at-law Geert Hatzmann, issued a terse statement on Monday in which he indicated that all his striking colleagues had received payment and that the strike was terminated immediately. The strike, organised under the auspices of the Criminal Defence Section of the St. Maarten Bar Association, affected a number of cases in the Court of First Instance and the Court of Appeals.
Pro-bono lawyers called the strike from April 19, as Government has failed to honour an ultimatum set by the lawyers for payment of all fees due to them for their services to crime suspect who cannot afford to pay for the legal assistance of a lawyer.
