In a landmark judicial ruling delivered May 26, High Court Justice Martha Alexander has ordered the Judicial and Legal Services Commission (JLSC) and the national Attorney General to cover all legal costs incurred by government accountability activist Jeremy Enriquez. The decision follows a scathing judicial finding that the JLSC violated statutory obligations by failing to properly address Enriquez’s official complaint against sitting High Court Justice Tawanda Hondora, leaving the activist mired in months of unnecessary legal limbo.
The case originated on April 28, 2025, when Enriquez lodged a formal complaint alleging judicial bias and professional misconduct against Justice Hondora. The accusation stems from an unplanned incident during a court proceeding recess, when Hondora allegedly forgot to mute his microphone during a lunch break, leading Enriquez and his legal representation to overhear the justice discussing their active, ongoing case.
Over the next seven months, Enriquez submitted repeated written inquiries requesting updates on the status of his misconduct complaint. Despite these consistent follow-ups, the JLSC failed to issue any substantive response or ruling on the allegation. Frustrated by the prolonged lack of transparency and action, Enriquez filed an application for judicial review of the JLSC’s inaction in November 2025. Only after the review claim was lodged did the commission finally notify Enriquez that it had dismissed his complaint.
In her written judgment, Justice Alexander sharply criticized the JLSC’s handling of the complaint process. She found that the commission failed to adhere to mandatory pre-action protocols established to prevent unnecessary litigation, and its prolonged silence on the matter ran counter to both the explicit language and underlying principles of administrative law. The justice further rejected the Attorney General’s counter-argument that Enriquez should be ordered to pay the state’s legal costs for the judicial review, instead upholding that the activist had acted reasonably in pursuing the claim.
Alexander explicitly rejected claims that Enriquez had rushed to file legal action, noting that the entire dispute could have been avoided entirely if the JLSC had provided a timely, clear response to the original complaint. This ruling marks the third recent legal victory for Enriquez, who previously won two separate appeals at the Caribbean Court of Justice connected to his constitutional challenge of national redistricting plans.
Notably, the core dispute over Enriquez’s misconduct allegation remains unresolved. The activist has launched a separate legal challenge to the JLSC’s eventual decision to dismiss his complaint against Hondora, and that substantive case is scheduled to proceed to a full trial in the coming months.