The legal dispute over the sacking of education commissioner Freddie Evans is to go before the courts early next year.

Dr Evans is seeking a judicial review of the decision to fire him from that post in October.

The parties were told at a hearing yesterday that the case may not be heard until March.

Both sides in the dispute were instructed to prepare their skeleton arguments by mid-January in case an earlier court date become available.

Dr Evans was removed from his position after a public dispute between the education commissioner and the Department of Education.

The dispute started when Dr Evans was told by the Ministry of Education that he had been removed from the job. Dr Evans, however, said that only the Governor had the power to dismiss him from his post.

The Public Service Commission later sent a letter to Dr Evan’s lawyer Mark Diel and Ministry of Education permanent secretary Valerie Robinson-James to say “an administrative error” in correspondence to Dr Evans meant he had not been fired.

However, the letter added “nor has he been confirmed in his post”.

The Governor removed Dr Evans from his position on October 13.

Mr Diel claimed his sacking came too late to be valid.

Mr Diel said that Dr Evans could be fired by the Governor only during his probation period, which ended more than a week before Mr Rankin confirmed Dr Evans’s dismissal.