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Lay magistrates not the answer – AFC

Jan 06, 2009 News

Chairman of the Alliance For Change, attorney-at-law Khemraj Ramjattan, is contending that Guyana does not need lay magistrates. Instead, trained lawyers need to be appointed to fill the positions.
“We have so many lawyers there is no need for lay magistrates. That would have been the case if there was a shortage of trained persons.”
According to him, the legal profession is packed to capacity with qualified lawyers, many of whom are quite up to the task of performing magisterial functions.
Ramjattan said that, for a better quality justice system, there should not be lay magistrates, especially in view of the fact that so many lawyers are produced through the University every year.
He added that the University has been churning out some 25 lawyers per year more than 15 years now.
Ramjattan noted that good justice can be dispensed by non-lawyers, but lawyers would be more suitable, since they are trained in the area of law and administration of justice.
According to Ramjattan, the Government must spend money to provide more magistrates’ courts and more magistrates to deal with the task at hand.
He stated that the Government is very stingy where it comes to the administration of justice, and is not appreciative of the contribution of this branch of the state.
Ramjattan said that the Jagdeo Administration does not pay heed to this component of the democracy, because it is a branch that the administration cannot control.
He cited President’s Jagdeo’s failure to swear in three judges recommended by the Judicial Services Commission last year April as an example.
Last week, Justice Desiree Bernard of the Caribbean Court of Justice stressed the need for Justices of the Peace to become more active, and the importance of lay magistrates. Justice Bernard was at the time addressing a meeting held yesterday by the Association of the Justices of the Peace and Commissioners of Oaths to Affidavits.
According to her, the appointment of lay magistrates is crucial, and she urged the members of the Association of Justices of the Peace to approach the Attorney-General in an effort to make the Bill an Act.
Justice Bernard added that if the proposed Bill becomes an Act, lay magistrates will be able to assist in the outlying areas.
President of the Justices of the Peace Association, Hermon Bholaisingh, had said that Justices of the Peace can play an integral role in helping to reduce the backlog that exists in the court system.
One of the ways in which this can happen, he added, is if the Lay Magistrates Bill comes into being.
According to Bholaisingh, there are many intelligent Justices of the Peace who will be able to take up the post of lay magistrates.
Reports state that the Lay Magistrates Bill came up in Parliament in 1999 and was referred to a select committee.
Bholaisingh noted that, since 1999, nothing has come of the proposal for lay magistrates in Guyana.
The idea behind lay magistrates is to relieve congestion in the courts by providing additional personnel to hear cases of a limited jurisdiction.
With the Bill, a person is qualified if he/she is a fit and proper person with at least seven years’ experience in a senior position in a public or private sector field of activity.
Each court will have a clerk who, at the time of appointment, must have a Bachelor of Law degree of any Commonwealth country, or any equivalent qualification; or who in the opinion of the Chancellor is a fit and proper person to be employed as a clerk.
The scheme of the Bill is that the clerk, when required by the magistrate, will give advice within his competence about the law, practice or procedure on questions arising in connection with the discharge of his function.
The lay magistrate’s criminal jurisdiction will cover offences, the punishment for which does not exceed a fine of $15,000. Such offences may include a number of minor offences, such as indecent language, disorderly behaviour, minor traffic matters, public health offences, cruelty to animals and other offences that attract small fines.

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