The system of justice is running out of wheels

Jan 24, 2010 Features / Columnists, My Column

My old mother always used to say that rain does not fall at one man’s door. Simply put, disaster is not confined to any single person or group or even country. Some may be in a better position to withstand any disaster but there are some of us who simply cannot cope.
I got a call from a woman early one morning this past week. She was in tears. She happened to give a power of attorney to a man who now wants to claim her property. She moved to the courts only to have the judge tell her that he, the judge, was more inclined to believe the man laying claim to her property.
That is bad and can push some people over the edge. This woman blurted out, “I feel like taking a dose of poison.” I tried my best to talk her out of this and it seems as though she has heeded my words. Many people seem to find fault with the courts. There have been those who felt wronged and there have been those who felt that they were the victims of misplaced justice.
I am a layman but it would seem that the person to present the most logical argument is the person who would prevail in a court of law. I am not au fait with all the arguments of this woman but it would seem that she was holding the messy end of the stick. She has appealed to me for help and I have asked her to send me the particulars of her matter.
I have gone to court and seen people walk free although they committed the crime. The reason was simple. The prosecution could not present a convincing argument. In a few cases, the judges had no option but to dismiss the matter and free the accused. But then the judges would invoke the name of the Supreme Being.
“God will be your judge”, I have heard some of them say. This meant that the judge was convinced of the guilt but he or she was hamstrung by the arguments presented. I would suppose this is why people solicit high-priced lawyers to get them out of trouble.
This brings me to the courts per se. Some people have been known to languish in prison awaiting trial. The courts are simply overwhelmed and to compound the issue judges and magistrates often grant adjournments.
Often the result is that the Director of Public Prosecutions would have no option but to release the accused. There have been cases where the Chief Justice had no option but to release some people on bail. One such person was a murder accused. The Chief Justice took some flak but he was within the law. Instead of criticizing his decision, the powers that be should put systems in place for the smooth running of the courts.
Magistrates are drastically short, with some having to rush from one court to another. Surely these magistrates would be taxed beyond their endurance to dispense justice. They do a good job, however.
Why is there this shortage of judges and magistrates? We have lawyers galore and these can be approached to serve as magistrates. Some feel that the pay is not good enough. If there is a problem with the magistracy and the judiciary then the state has every right to pull out the stops. Do not talk about money because we spend money in areas where we are shortchanged.
We pay millions of dollars to contractors who do shoddy work. When the crime wave threatened to get out of hand we spent $400 million to arm the police and each year we spend millions of dollars more. Let us put an additional US$2 million to pay magistrates. We have the money. The lotto company has contributed $4 billion to the public coffers and the Guyana Revenue Authority is doing even better.
It should be the same with judges. In other countries, judges are seen as the pinnacle of the society. Ours must not be mendicants. There is the saying that if you pay peanuts you will get monkeys. If indeed the powers feel that these people would become rich then so be it. Their work demands that they be made to live in comfort so that they would not be tempted by those who have a penchant for bribing judges. Let us appoint more magistrates and judges. The more the merrier.
I look at Haiti and sometimes I cannot help but compare the situation there with the one in Guyana. Before the earthquake in Haiti there were so many things that all one had to do was to transpose Guyana with Haiti. I am not proud to hear the criticisms of our judicial system.
I remember that we experimented with a Night Court. I would have expected that to be a permanent feature given the backlogs. I have heard talk about lay magistrates. I suppose we are a good people when it comes to talk, but we do precious little else.

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The system of justice is running out of wheels

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