Justice Aboud appointed to Appeal Court

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Justice James Christopher Aboud was today presented with his instrument of appointment as a Justice of Appeal by Chief Justice Ivor Archie.

Justice Aboud obtained an Honours degree in English Literature from the University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, and a post-graduate diploma in International Relations from the Institute of International Relations, University of the West Indies, St Augustine, Trinidad. He obtained an Honours Bachelor of Laws degree at UWI, Cave Hill, Barbados. In 1984, he was called to the Bar of England and Wales and, in the same year, was called to the Bar of Trinidad and Tobago as a Barrister-at-Law.

He practiced law in T&T as an advocate Attorney from 1984 to 2006, starting in the Chambers of Trevor Lee SC and, later, in the Chambers of Fyard Hosein SC, and worked in the areas of wills and trusts, public law, Admiralty, commercial and land law. From 1987 to 1993, he served as a Commissioner of the then-Public Utilities Commission, hearing contested applications for rate increases by the public utilities, among other regulatory duties. He sat on the board of National Flour Mills Limited, a state enterprise, from 1987 to 1991.

Committed to the advancement of his profession, he served the Council of the Law Association of Trinidad and Tobago as its Honorary Treasurer from 1994 to 2003. He was a member of its Disciplinary Council from 1997 to 2005, hearing and determining complaints against attorneys at law brought by their former clients. He was a contributor of scholarly legal articles to “The Lawyer” and served on its editorial committee.

In January 2006 he was appointed as an Acting High Court Judge serving exclusively at the Supreme Court, San Fernando, until December 2007. He assisted in greatly reducing the backlog of cases that had accumulated in that court under the former Rules of the Supreme Court, 1975.

He got a notorious reputation in San Fernando for sitting late into the evenings—once until 7 pm on a Friday—in order to complete the many matters that had become inactive. He returned to private practice in 2008 and, in 2010, Mr Justice Aboud accepted an appointment as a permanent Judge of the High Court. While a Judge, he was the chairman of the committee that wrote the “Handbook on Damages for False Imprisonment and Malicious Prosecution in Trinidad and Tobago” (published by the Judicial Education Institute of T&T).

He is the son of the late Mr Jimmy Aboud, “The Textile King” and Lily Elias Aboud. His brothers Gregory, Stephen, and Gary Aboud and his sister Linda Aboud-Stephen are all deeply involved in

national service of one type or the other.

He is married to Siân Jeary-Aboud and his three daughters, Emily, Catherine Rebecca, and Vivien all won national scholarships.

Mr Justice Aboud is well-known in writing circles as a poet. Two of his poetry collections were published and many of his poems have been anthologised and printed in a variety of literary magazines and journals. In 2004 he won the James Rodway Poetry Prize awarded by Derek Walcott and Boston University for his book “Lagahoo Poems”. He continues to write poetry in his spare time. He is an amateur painter and an avid tennis player.