List of Crown appointed Advocates (FOI)

Request

Please provide a list of all crown advocates that represent the Attorney General in Jersey.

Response

The information requested is not held and it is not possible to create it from records held.

Article 3 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 applies.

Further explanation is provided below.

Article 1 of the Crown Advocates (Jersey) Law 1987 provides:

1 Appointment

(1)     The Attorney General may appoint either for a definite or indefinite period, one or more Advocates of the Royal Court to discharge the Attorney General’s functions in any proceedings before any court in Jersey, (hereafter referred to as “Crown Advocate”). 

(2)     Every Advocate so appointed shall take oath before the Inferior Number of the Royal Court in the form set out in the Schedule to this Law.

(3)     The Attorney General may terminate the appointment of any Crown Advocate.

Crown Advocates (Jersey) Law 1987 (jerseylaw.je)

While records are held of when a Crown Advocate takes their oath before the Inferior Number of the Royal Court it is the Attorney General who may terminate the appointment of any Crown Advocate.

Without knowing the dates of all terminations by the Attorney General there is no way from the Royal Court’s swearing in records of creating a current list of Crown Advocates.

Any record which may exist of the termination of a Crown Advocate’s appointment would be held by the Law Officers’ Department on behalf of the Attorney General, however that Department is not a Scheduled Public Authority under the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 and therefore does not have an obligation to disclose any information in response to this request.

Article applied

Article 3 - Meaning of “information held by a public authority”

For the purposes of this Law, information is held by a public authority if –

(a)     it is held by the authority, otherwise than on behalf of another person; or

(b)     it is held by another person on behalf of the authority.