Commercial Court gets new judge

A new judge has been appointed to serve for a year in the Commercial Division of the High Court here in the British Virgin Islands.

Justice K. Neville Adderley, whose appointment took effect yesterday (September 1), is a former Bahamian senator who also served as a member of the judiciary in the Bahamas at the commercial bar for 28 years.

He was a judge at the Supreme Court for five years, and at the Court of Appeal for three-and-a-half years.

Furthermore, Justice Adderley served as a non-resident judge in the Court of Appeal of the Turks and Caicos Islands from May 2016 until present.

He obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree in Mathematics in 1967 from St John’s University, Minnesota.

He also holds a Master’s of Science in Statistics from The London School of Economics and Political Science, 1971.

Justice Adderley read law at the College of Law in London, and the Inns of Court School of Law.

He was called to the Bar of England and Wales in 1978 as a member of the Honourable Society of the Inner Temple. He also was called to the Bahamas Bar in 1979 and the Turks and Caicos Bar in 1982.

Justice Adderley has been a judicial member of STEP for many years.

Before heading into law, he completed a 10-year career in the civil service successively as Deputy Director of Statistics, Director of Economic Planning, Chairman of the Arbitration (Labour) Tribunals, and Deputy Permanent Secretary in the prime minister’s office.

In addition, Justice Adderley served as Chairman of the Bahamas Development Bank for four years prior to becoming a Judge.

He will be joined on the bench in September through November by Justice Gerhard Wallbank, who has served both the BVI Commercial Court and the High Court of Antigua and Barbuda over the past year.

Justice Adderley will be joined by Justice David Chivers (QC) in January through March 2018.

According to a media release from the Government Information Service, the BVI Commercial Court is among the leading jurisdictions for international commercial litigation in the region, handling high-value complex insolvency and commercial claims.