Justice delayed is justice denied

May 21, 2024 Letters

Dear Editor,

Recently, the United Nations Committee on Human Rights has rapped Guyana’s moribund Justice system on several grounds dealing with non-confirmation of the Chancellor and Chief Justice and critically about the Sloth and Independence of the Justice system.

Sir, the UN is absolutely correct in their observations and the average Guyanese cannot expect to get Justice from our system as the wheels of Justice turn excruciatingly slow and many persons die before their cases are heard or their witnesses pass on or migrate; meanwhile, the lawyer may have collected all or a great part of their fees. Can we not have a system here agreed by the Bar and the Judiciary with regards to a fee structure that is approved and reviewed periodically say every three years so that litigants are not charged fees on an adhoc basis and further some regulation in place preventing lawyers form demanding 100 % of fees in advance or a significant portion of it paid upfront knowing fully well the case can be in the Court for a decade or more after being called up and put down several times at the whims and fancies of lawyers, Judges and Magistrates?

In fact, I personally believe that Guyanese will continue to emigrate because of a number of factors such as crime, government bureaucracy, etc. but one of the factors is the fact that the average person does not believe that he or she will get Justice if and when they are involved in Litigation.

Editor, I know of many persons with important cases at the Court of Appeal for many years and no one knows when these cases will be called up for a decision to be made, can an online system not be put in place so that Litigants can check if their cases will be called up/heard in 1 year or 2 years or 6 years? In this regard while I understand more Judges will be appointed shortly, there must be an agreement for longer work hours and shorter holiday periods for the officers of the Court in order to make a significant dent on the backlog which really makes Guyana look like a fourth-rate country and is in fact, a national disgrace. In recent times, many of the Judgments of the Guyana Court of Appeal have been reversed outright by the Caribbean Court of Justice and this points also to the Competence of the Judges as well. We must develop a system of being able to sack COA Judges who have say three or more of their decisions in a year totally reversed by the CCJ as they are wasting taxpayers funds and denying justice to the general populace.

Recently, the Attorney General Nandlall taking a cue from Barbados has called out for recalcitrant and delinquent Judges who fail to give written decisions on time to be “defrocked” Mr. Attorney General, President of the Bar Association and Madam Chancellor (ag) why can we not get this effected immediately? Our Lawyers and Judges seem to be above the Law. If you are employed in any other sector of this society, you can be fired just the way you were hired!

Also many practising lawyers do not represent their clients’ interest in a professional manner with many cases being adjourned sometimes due to unavailability or unpreparedness of the Attorney or of course in other cases unavailability of a Magistrate or Judge. We have just seen that the Guyana Medical Council has finally taken action against recalcitrant Doctors suspending one and removing another one from the medical Register of Practitioners when will we see such action being taken by the Guyana Bar Association?

I look forward to informed comments from competent individuals and definitely a reply from the top officials mentioned above plus the GBA.

Yours sincerely,

Concerned Citizen