The Judicial backlog continues

Oct 04, 2016 News

Chairman of the Police Complaints Authority, Justice Cecil Kennard, has stated that the magistrates need to work harder and to put in more hours. A majority of the backlog cases are due to witnesses not turning up to court.
He also stated that he thinks the system is in need of more magistrates.
According to Justice Kennard, “We have a society where everybody wants his day in court, but I feel that in any minor cases that person need not be charged. Warnings could be given.”
He said that minor offences such as simple traffic offences, minor criminal offences such as assault or disorderly behaviour, a warning would be sufficient.
Those minor matters add to the backlog. “A magistrate can only do so much,” said Justice Kennard
Back in July the Justice Administration, through the Ministry of Legal Affairs, addressed the backlog of cases, including civil cases. For the project, US$49,020 was allocated to allow for the disposal of backlog of cases. It was a collaborative initiative between the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the government.
Back then, Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Basil Williams, set to the table a number of measures to be implored including the appointment of a part time judge to deal with civil backlog.
The judicial system was clogged by an overwhelming number of unfinished cases which caused an increase of backlog. Some cases date back to more than a decade,
Suspects languish in prison much longer than the length of time they would have spent had they been convicted.
In the past the media blamed the backlog on the shortage of Judges in the court. Several Editorials and articles were written during that time to this effect; there were allegations that reportedly involves incompetence and in some cases “laziness.”
It was said that during the last ten years, the only attempt by the former PPP administration to solve the problem was to increase the statutory complement of Judges from 12 to 20 but the administration did not provide the courtrooms and chambers for them.
Former Chief Justice Ian Chang had admitted that the situation is in dire straits. He said that in dealing with it, consideration needs to be given to a change in the leave system.

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