A LABOUR peer has resigned from his position at a law centre over its decision to represent a US woman who is at the centre of a legal battle with a community charity in the Outer Hebrides.
Claire Kellerman, who is the niece and adoptive daughter of the late Hollywood actress and MASH star Sally Kellerman, has found herself in the middle of a media storm after she launched a £10,000 legal claim after she was refused permission to bring her dog into the Bernera Community Cafe.
Kellerman’s lawyers, the Glasgow-based Ethnic Minorities Law Centre (EMLC), initially launched a court challenge against the Bernera Development Trust, which ran up legal costs of more than £7000.
However, they then admitted in court that the action was directed against the wrong organisation. EMLC have now brought a claim against the community association, the voluntary group that runs the cafe.
But now, former Scotland Office minister George Foulkes has told The Scotsman that he has resigned his role as a patron of the organisation in protest.
He said that she was "not an ethnic minority person" and was involved in a "provocative case causing so many problems for the local community”.
Foulkes added: “I have resigned in protest at their support for her, and also their failure to keep patrons informed of their work.”
In a letter to local Labour MP Donald MacKinnon, the chief executive of SLAB – Colin Lancaster – defended the organisation’s actions.
“On the concern that proceedings were initially raised against the wrong defender, our role is not to determine questions of fact, evidence, law or liability – including the identity of the proper defender,” he said.
“Where relevant representations are made to us … information is sought from the assisted person’s solicitor. That was done in this case and we were satisfied that tests were met, based on the information provided. It is not our role to independently investigate far less determine the legal basis of a case, or verify the information provided in support of the merits of an application.”
Lancaster added: “All potentially relevant information provided to SLAB has been considered, including representations about the original defender, the subsequent change of defender, the applicant’s financial circumstances and the issues raised about the legal basis and prospects of the action.”
