Understanding the magistracy level of the court system

Jun 12, 2022 News

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==The Court Journal==

By Renay Sambach

Kaieteur News – In Guyana, the Judiciary consists of three different levels of court supremacy. There are several jurisdictional Magistrates’ Courts, one High Court in each of the three counties and one Court of Appeal.

The Magistracy is the hub of Guyana’s Judiciary and as such, a large number of criminal cases are disposed of at that level.
Working at that level of the court are Magistrates, who are judicial officers who administrate the law in the various districts throughout the country. There is the Chief Magistrate, Principal Magistrates, Senior Magistrates and Magistrates.
According to the law, the Chief Magistrate, a Principal Magistrate, and a Senior Magistrate have the power to exercise and perform all the functions conferred on a magistrate under the Summary Jurisdiction (Magistrates’) Act. Presently sitting as the Chief Magistrate is Ann McLennan. Some Principal Magistrates are: Sherdel Isaacs-Marcus, Judy Latchman and Faith McGusty. Additionally, some Senior Magistrates are: Fabayo Azore, Leron Daly, Dylon Bess, Alex Moore, Clive Nurse and Zameena Ally-Seepaul.
Among the Magistrates are Annette Singh, Rhondell Weever, Alisha George, Roshelle Liverpool, Sunil Scarce, Crystal Lambert, Peter Hugh, Wanda Fortune, and others.
The Magistrates function by examining facts presented to the court by the prosecution and defence and then applying the relevant laws to reach a final verdict or decision.
At the Magistracy level, summary criminal matters such as: assault, simple larceny, abusive language, robbery under arms, forgery and also civil matters are conducted there.
At a trial in a Magistrate Courts for summarily disposed matters, the prosecution presents the evidence in the matter to the court and at the end of a trial the Magistrate can either rule if there’s insufficient evidence or sufficient evidence for the defendant to be convicted for the offence.
All serious offences like murder, carnal knowledge, rape and other serious criminal matters commence at the Magistracy level. For those offences a Preliminary Inquiry (PI) or Paper Committal is conducted before it is sent to the High Court if enough evidence is produced.
For serious offences an accused is not required to plead to the charge since it is laid indictably. In a PI, the evidence in the matter is presented to the court and at the end, the Magistrate can either rule if there’s insufficient or sufficient evidence against the defendant for him/her to stand trial in the High Court or if the matter will be discharged.
Often persons confuse the ‘matter being discharged’ with the ‘matter being dismissed’. A serious offence, being discharged against someone is not an acquittal as in the case of the matter being dismissed. As such, it must be noted that when a matter is discharged, charges can still be brought again, against someone for the same alleged offence.
In addition to criminal matters, Magistrates also hear civil cases and family disputes.
Also, Magistrates cannot rule over serious offences, only judges can pass judgment for serious offences in the High Court and Magistrates cannot impose a sentence greater than five years for any matter.
Besides handling the majority of criminal matters, the Magistrate’s Court is where persons go to pay or uplift child support.
Moreover, another body that is a part of the Magistracy are police prosecutors.
A prosecutor is a legal officer who represents the state in criminal matters. In the Magistrates Court, they are police prosecutors and special prosecutors. Every courtroom at the Magistrates Court is assigned two or three police prosecutors, in some instances more.
Police prosecutors are police ranks who were assigned to work with the court superintendent’s office. The police officers, who prosecute undertake a limited training in the area of prosecution.
Despite their limited training in the law field, some police prosecutors have proven to handle the job fairly well when they going up against attorneys-at-law who studied law for several years before being accepted to the Bar to practice.
However, it has also been observed that due to the police prosecutor’s lack of training in the legal field that many criminal matters that pass through the Magistrates Court, end in favour of the defence counsel who has superior knowledge and training in the law field.
Most of the criminal cases in the Magistrates Court are handled by police prosecutors.
Additionally, they are special prosecutors, those prosecutors are attorneys-at-law who are often hired by the Attorney General’s office and tasked with prosecuting certain cases.
In addition, agencies like the Special Organised Crime Unit (S.O.CU) and Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit (C.A.N.U) have their own prosecutors. Relatives of a murder victim or the virtual complainant in any matter can also request to hire an attorney-at-law to prosecute the case instead of using the police prosecutors.
Also operating at the Magistracy level is attorneys-at-law. Lawyers are practitioners in a court of law who are legally qualified to prosecute and defend actions in such court on the retainer of clients.
Additionally, each court is also equipped with a clerk and an orderly. The clerk is an officer of the court whose responsibilities include maintaining records of a court. As for the court orderly, duties include swearing in witnesses and maintaining order in court.

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