Justice Suzie d’Auvergne has died. She passed earlier today Monday August 18 after a reported long battle with cancer.
A retired High Court Judge of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court, Justice d’Auvergne served as Saint Lucia’s Director of Public Prosecutions, and the first female to serve as Solicitor General.
In 2004, after 14 years of service on the bench, Justice Suzie d’Auvergne retired as a High Court Judge of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court (Saint Lucia Circuit). However, that year she was appointed Acting Justice of the Appeal Court. In 2004 she was also awarded the Saint Lucia Medal of Honour for her outstanding service in the course of justice in addition to the CMG (Companion of the Order of Saint Michael and Saint George) in 2006.
Justice Suzie d’Auvergne joined the Civil Service as a Magistrate after five years of private practice, having been called to the Bar on January 9, 1975. In 1982, three years after becoming a Magistrate, she was appointed Director of Public Prosecution, and in 1988, she was appointed the first ever Solicitor General of St. Lucia. On September 17, 1990, she was appointed a High Court Judge.
Tributes continue to flow from the legal circles in Saint Lucia and the wider Caribbean in honour of Justice Suzie d’Auvergne.
Rest in peace, Suzie from a member of the St. Joseph’s Convent graduation class of 1961 (JJJ)