West Kingston Enquiry - Lawyers' heckling forces seating rearrangements

ARRANGEMENTS HAVE been made to have opposing legal teams appearing before the West Kingston Commission of Enquiry to sit some distance apart from each other.

The Commission chairman, Justice Julius Isaac was forced to alter the seating arrangements to separate opposing attorneys, after repeated complaints about disruptive cross-talk and heckling among them.

The decision was made on Monday at the start of the Commission's second week of hearings, after attorney Patrick Atkinson complained that lawyers representing the Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) seated behind him were heckling him and being rude while he was cross-examining Assistant Com-missioner of Pol-ice Arthur Martin. Mr. Atkinson also expressed the concern that some attorneys were making comments loud enough to influence the responses being given by the witness.

Justice Isaac said he would undertake to have furniture rearranged so that whichever attorney is conducting the examination could not be interrupted by cross-talk, and so that opposing counsels would be at some distance from each other.

He also indicated that the constant cross-talk was testing his own patience.

"My own concern is that it is distracting to me. I'm trying to listen to the witness, make an assessment of the witness and try to follow what he is saying, so I find it distracting to listen to this din and hubbub," he said.

Back to Lead Stories