An old court system in modern times

Jun 07, 2011 Editorial

A headline in a recent issue of this newspaper screamed that of 194 cases listed for the April sessions of the Criminal Assizes, the two judges in the criminal courts managed to complete five.
At first glance this would seem to be a most inauspicious performance on the part of the courts. It also explains why there is the massive backlog in the judicial system and why frantic efforts are underway to devise ways and means of reducing the backlogs.
The first question that one may wish to ask is why, given the large number of criminal matters in the courts, why are there not more judges. Two criminal judges simply cannot be enough.
There are simply not enough judges in the judiciary. Barring the Chief Justice, there are ten judges in the system. The Chief Justice is more in the Guyana Court of Appeal than in the High Court. That leaves ten to deal with the civil and criminal matters in the three counties.
Each county needs two judges, one for criminal matters and the other for civil issues. That takes away four judges from the High Court in the city. In the city there are civil matters being done in Chamber and in Bail Court. Two more judges must be removed from the equation. One has not even examined the number of divorce cases. In Georgetown there are 500 pending divorces. The Berbice court will hear 72 divorce cases on June 16.
The situation becomes critical if two or more judges proceed on annual leave. There are simply not enough judges to hear the matters. But Guyana is now becoming a litigious society. Everyone is suing the other and the cases build up.
We now turn to the criminal matters. A murder trial could take a long time depending on the number of witnesses appearing for the prosecution; and appearing for the defence; the length of the examination and the ensuing cross examination and the re-examination.
Some believe that the completion of five cases in the three-month session is not bad. In fact, Justice Claudette Singh presided over a murder trial that got underway at the start of one criminal session and lasted into the other—a case lasting three months.
And this is happening as more people are being added to the list. At this rate the courts would be forced to free many people regardless of their guilt or innocence.
In some jurisdictions the rules of court had to be changed to expedite the system. In the United Kingdom the courts now insist on written submissions from the prosecution and the defence. These form the basis of arguments.
Guyana simply needs more judges. In the first instance the courts do not have their quota of judges. Jamaica has 28 judges and the fact that the population is larger than Guyana’s does not mean a thing. The system there has its complement of judges.
The solution to Guyana’s problems is to employ more judges. The system needs at least eighteen judges and the onus is on the authorities to find them. In some countries judges have tenure for life. In Guyana we force ours to retire and we simply do not replace them.
But there is more to the court system than judges. For example, in this day and age the High Court is not internet ready. Rather than researching material electronically, the judges are expected to plough through tomes of law volumes.
There should have been some hotspots as there is in the Parliament but there is none at the courts.
In the court, too, many of these judges allow lawyers to seek postponement after postponement causing some cases to take almost forever to be completed. About two years ago, the Chancellor of the Judiciary called on the judges to put a halt to the granting of adjournments and some have done this.
Recently, in court, one lawyer sought a postponement on the grounds that he could not properly research his references to support his arguments. Immediately, a judge reminded him that in this electronic age that should not be the case. The courts, then, appear to be a dinosaur in the 21st Century. Judges have been promised the electronic wherewithal to record testimonies. At present they still have to copiously and laboriously record the proceedings. There are no court reporters.
However, we need more judges but the appointments are not being made. And in any case, if the court should get another eight judges, where would they sit? The government never sought to prepare for a court house in these modern times.

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An old court system in modern times

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