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Annual Report for Judiciary reveals…More than 10, 000 court cases roll over to 2016
By Kiana A. Wilburg
The alarming number of civil and criminal cases that have been carried over from 2015 to this year has been highlighted in the latest Annual Report of the Supreme Court of Judicature.
Minister of Legal Affairs and Attorney General, Basil Williams
During 2015, a total of 6, 492 civil matters were filed in the Supreme Court Registry, Georgetown; 1207 in the Sub-Registry, New Amsterdam; and 299 in the Sub-Registry Essequibo. This makes a total of 7,998 matters filed.
To this must be added the backlog of 2,595 matters in Georgetown, 4,223 in Berbice, and 868 in Essequibo. This gives a total of 7,686 backlog matters. When this is added to the 7,998 filed in 2015 it gives a grand total of 15,684 matters which were to be heard in 2015.
Kaieteur News understands that the Judges heard and determined 4831 matters in Georgetown, 595 matters in Berbice and 203 matters in Essequibo, making a total of 5,629 matters concluded in 2015. This would leave a total of 10, 055 civil matters pending at the end of 2015.
The report also notes the concern of the officials of the Judicature regarding the number of civil cases awaiting trial. These cases continue to escalate. The officials said that the staff of the Supreme Court Registry continues its exercise of auditing all matters filed in the Registry by bundling them into categories of matters. These categories are abandoned, deserted, ripe for hearing and pending in the Registry either for pleadings to be closed or for decisions to be delivered by Judges.
Matters that are ripe for the hearing are sent to the chambers of the Chief Justice for assignment to judges for hearing. The abandoned matters are also assigned by the Chief Justice to Judges for call over of these cases so that Attorneys-at-law and litigants are given the opportunity to be heard. This is an ongoing exercise.
In relation to this exercise last year, 158 Civil Matters were deemed abandoned. This follows the 829 that were completed in 2014, a further 265 in 2013 and 8,062 in 2012. The number of matters disposed of goes as far back as 2007 in Georgetown and 2005 in Berbice while Essequibo is dealing with current matters.
The Supreme Court is also using the Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) method to deal with civil matters which is done on a voluntary basis. However, there are plans to make mediation a compulsory step in the civil procedure rules and also to expand the pool of trained mediators available to do mediation.
At the end of last year, matters were referred to mediation by Judges of the High Court and through requests by Attorneys-at-Law/clients.
As for Criminal cases, it was noted that last year, 73 depositions were filed in the High Court Registry, Georgetown, 35 in the Sub-Registry, New Amsterdam and 16 in Suddie, Essequibo making a total of 124 depositions.
To this number must be added the pending backlog of 213 in Georgetown, 179 in Berbice and 59 in Essequibo, making a grand total of 451 criminal matters to be heard.
According to the annual report, 53 Criminal matters were completed in Georgetown, 16 in Berbice and 11 in Suddie Essequibo. The report said that these indictments reflect matters heard in Georgetown, Berbice and Essequibo for which Preliminary Inquiries (PI) were heard in the Magistrates’ Court.
Officials of the Supreme Court noted, however, that the rising number of both civil and criminal cases that are to be heard by the limited number of Judges is disturbing.
They said that civil matters, especially, most times involve dealing with complex issues which require hearing of evidence over a number in addition to dealing with authorities cited by Attorneys-at-Law.
The officials said, “It is impossible for a Judge to complete 30 civil matters in one session more so, when Attorneys-at-Law are given adjournments too often. It is the hope of the administration that given time and space at the High Court, 20 judges will be able to deal with the backlog of cases positively.”
Another problem they said that has to be addressed urgently is the number of cases completed but still awaiting delivery of judgment by judges. The officials said that in some cases, delivery of judgment is outstanding as far back as three years.
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