Barbados to begin striking off court cases

Sep 12, 2013 News

The Barbados judiciary will soon strike off cases from its list of pending matters, in a move that may hold an example of a way forward for Guyana in addressing the problem of a backlog in issues for the court.
As it is now in Guyana, Barbados has a high number of matters waiting years for a court decision. The island’s judiciary early this year decided upon a Backlog Reduction Project (BRP) to oversee whether some matters from as far back as 1990 remain applicable now.
In the first indication that this review is yielding benefits, Chief Justice Sir Marston Gibson, has announced that over three dozen cases filed in 1990 are on the chopping block.
“There are now some 29 orders of dismissal which are being prepared for my signature, and another 11 orders for cases which will be calendared for status hearings before me shortly,” he said Monday at the opening of the 2013-2014 assizes.
These cases were forwarded to the Chief Justice by a BRP committee, which is now set to turn its attention to matters filed in 1991, and Sir Marston expressed satisfaction that within months of the programme results are forthcoming.
“I feel very positive about the work of the committee and the fact that we have had some measure of success, however limited,” he said.
The 40 cases that will ultimately be thrown out unless concerned parties file a legal objection, represent part of the 79 outstanding matters for 1990.
The Chief Justice described work on erosion of the backlog as limited so far, because the case-load builds up annually.
The Guyana numbers far exceed the civil cases filed in the Barbados High court; but more matters get to hearing on that island than here.
Recognising that despite the work of eradicating matters at the back end of the pile-up, they would always be out-numbered by new grievances filed by persons, the Barbados judiciary will soon introduce another system to steer some matters away, or take them out, from the courts – the Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) mechanism.
“As indicated last year, we need to change the way we do business in the courts if we are going to be ever able to get ahead of the curve, or at least keep up with the annual filings,” Sir Marston said.
Practiced in many developed countries, this mechanism for mediation and arbitration outside of the courts is said to be less adversarial and is recommended by judges as a recourse in situations where the matter can be settled without court intervention.
“There are cases that require a judge’s attention and cases which do not; and there are cases, especially commercial cases which need to be brought to finality quickly,” Sir Marston said.

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Barbados to begin striking off court cases

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