BELIZE Law and Practice Contributed by: Nigel Ebanks and Darinka Muñoz, Barrow and Williams LLP
4.5 Applications for Security for Defendant’s Costs
that application. “Urgent” applications generally only require three clear days’ notice if brought to the attention of any other party.
A defendant may apply to court for an order that a claimant provides security for that defendant’s costs. These orders are perhaps most common where: • the claimant resides outside the jurisdiction; • the claimant has no assets or means within the jurisdiction to which the defendant might look to satisfy a court order; and • the claimant’s case against the defendant is not particularly strong. In Civil Appeal No 26 of 2016 Fort Street Tour- ism Village v Suzanne Kilic, the Belize Court of Appeal held that a defendant must show that there is a real risk that there will be difficulty in enforcing an order for costs. Even if a claimant resides in a country that is included in the Recip- rocal Enforcement of Judgments (Extension) Order, a defendant can still succeed in such an application if they can prove difficulty in enforc- ing a cost award. The manner of posting security includes the claimant’s payment of a specified sum into court in order to abide by the terms of any costs order that the court might ultimately make in the defendant’s favour. 4.6 Costs of Interim Applications/ Motions The costs of interim applications can be ordered to be paid relative to the date on which that application is disposed of or at a later date, including by factoring the liability for those costs into the final costs order made at the end of the substantive claim. 4.7 Application/Motion Timeframe Applications for interim relief generally require that the respondents to such applications have at least seven clear days’ notice of the hearing of
5. Discovery 5.1 Discovery and Civil Cases
As a jurisdiction that has adopted English com- mon law, Belize has a process of discovery, which is referred to as disclosure. Litigation pro- ceeding through its normal course in the Belize court is subject to the usual disclosure require- ments. 5.2 Discovery and Third Parties The duty of disclosure is generally confined to the parties to the proceedings. Exception- ally, however, a court may order a third party to disclose information that is relevant to a claim involving parties other than that third party. These orders are of the Norwich Pharmacal/ Bankers Trust type. In Belize, their primary use has been with respect to the unearthing of infor- mation in proceedings concerning international financial services. These orders are discretionary. To obtain them, one must generally satisfy the court that: • the applicant has suffered a wrong; • the applicant needs the information to com- mence a claim against the wrongdoer; • the respondent possesses the required infor- mation; and • in all the circumstances, it would be just for the court to order the respondent to come to the applicant’s aid by producing such infor- mation. Bankers Trust type orders specifically are used mainly in tracing actions where an applicant has
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