Years after, some judges are still to write their decisions

Mar 05, 2017 Letters

Dear Editor,
It is incumbent to pass legislation in order to get judges to write their decision in a timely manner. The Bar association, with its usual passive character in responding to matters that affect them, including the requirement for Attorneys to wear black and white has failed to call upon judges to put their discussion in black and white within a reasonable time.
Judges penalized litigants through their lawyers for not filing documents on time. I spend a considerable amount of time sitting and listening to cases in various courts and I gleaned that the Bench welcomes the new civil rules in a sense that some courts cannot wait to stamp heavy costs on lawyers who they see as contributing to the back log of cases while they themselves are the ones who also contribute to the back log of cases in a most frustrating manner at the end of the juridical chain. It hurts to know your case has finally closed and you have to simply wait on judges who in a sense infringe on the constitution of Guyana without remorse by delaying the handing down of their decision for excessively long periods some reaching 5 years.
All the work that has to be done by lawyers in the form of submissions in writing, are rarely done orally these days and must be done by a given date. The judge just has to read, analyze and perhaps look at some other previous submissions made by other lawyers on the same issues and if possible add, alter or modify with research findings and pass judgment, but yet the waiting is long. Some people die, minors turn adult while other interested parties in the same case live without peace. I have been waiting for over 4 years for my decision, which I appealed.
I run so often to the staff at the Court of Appeal; wrote the previous Chief Justice (Ag), Mr. Ian Chang, who I am sure informed the particular court but to no avail. The Court of Appeal made endless request to the particular judge to write the decision in order to put together the records but same were ignored. I am not sure why the Court of Appeal cannot go ahead without the decision of a judge. There is now a judicial crisis at the Court of Appeal
Should I succeed, the purchasing power of any money awarded to me would be diminished. My lawyer died waiting for this decision. I have to pay another lawyer and I am still waiting and the next thing you will hear is that Judge retired without writing the decision.
Subject to correction, there is some requirement for an outgoing judge to write all his or her decisions before leaving the bench, failing which their pension will be curtailed. There is however nothing to curtail a sitting judge from writing his decision in a timely manner. These judges must be deemed either incompetent or unfit and be removed by the Judicial Service Commission on that basis by law.
As a matter of public interest, a list of all the cases waiting for decision in excess of 7 months should be published in the newspapers together with the number of the court whether Court 3 or 4 that is responsible for not writing the decision. It is time that all those who are affected with unwritten decisions including lawyers to voice their concern; that is only how justice is awarded in Guyana; sometimes it takes a picket also to get justice
Concern Citizen/Litigant

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