Latest update March 30th, 2025 6:57 AM
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Guyana leads in number of cases filed at CCJ
Kaieteur News – Guyana is leading in the number of appeal cases filed in the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ). Reviews of the data compiled in the Annual Reports of the CCJ points to a significantly higher number of matters from Guyana being taken to the CCJ on appeal than any other CARICOM nation.
President of the CCJ Justice Adrian Saunders.
Guyana is among four Caribbean territories which subscribe to the Trinidad-based institution as their final appeal court. Since its establishment in 2001, the CCJ has recorded more appeal cases from Guyana when compared to the other three territories; Barbados, Belize, and Dominica.
A review of the Annual Reports presented by the CCJ shows that Guyanese cases continue to dominate appeals to the CCJ for more than five years.
An examination of data collected by the CCJ dating back to 2014 revealed that while the number of Guyanese appeal cases filed at the CCJ on an annual basis, may be less than other territories, when the information is looked at as a whole, Guyana’s CCJ filings are far higher than the other countries.
For instance, for the period of 2014 to 2015, a total of eighteen cases were filed under the Appellate Jurisdiction of the Court. Of these, the Report outlined that thirteen were notices of Applications for Special Leave to Appeal and five were Notices of Appeals.
Of the thirteen Applications for Leave to Appeal brought to this Court, seven were filed from the Court of Appeal in Barbados, two from the Belize Court of Appeal and four from the Court of Appeal of Guyana.
According to the 2015 to 2016 annual report, the CCJ also saw a number of appeal matters from the four countries. Of 15 appeal applications for special leave brought to the Court, seven were filed from the Court of Appeal of Barbados, two from the Court of Appeal Belize and six from the Court of Appeal Guyana.
For the 2017 to 2018 judicial year, the CCJ saw a 32% increase in the number of matters filed above the previous year, with two cases filed from Dominica, six cases from Belize, seven cases from Barbados and seventeen cases from Guyana.
The Court reported that, that year civil applications and appeals represented the clear majority (88%) of the new matters while the number of appeals filed in this year more than doubled the number filed in the previous judicial year.
Then the 2018-2019 Annual Report saw the CCJ recording a 15% increase in the number of matters filed above the previous year, with two cases filed from Dominica, four cases from Belize, eleven cases from Barbados and twenty cases from Guyana.
The report outlined that the Applications for Special Leave represented a 92% increase over 2017-18, while the number of Notices of Appeal filed in that year fell by approximately 37%.
And just recently, as the CCJ’s 2021/2022 -court term opened, President of the CCJ Justice Adrian Saunders in giving a summary of the work of the Court for the 2020/2021 year revealed that fifty-five cases were dealt with virtually.
In his remarks, President Saunders noted that despite the challenges created by the COVID-19 pandemic, the CCJ continued to provide uninterrupted service to the region. While the President did not reveal the number of appeal cases filed, Kaieteur News has learnt that cases from Guyana still dominated the appeals dealt with by the Regional Court. This newspaper understands that of the fifty-five hearings conducted in fully virtual courtrooms, at least 18 appeal cases were from Guyana.
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