SOME executive members of the Jamaican Bar Association have stepped in to curb the exodus of prosecutors from the office of the Director of Public Prosecution.The Sunday Gleaner has been reliably in-formed that on Friday, Hillary Phillips, Q.C., president of the Jamai-can Bar Association, and Dennis Morrison, Q.C., along with the Honourable Ian Forte, president of the Court of Appeal, met with senior prosecutors at Medal-lion Hall in St. Andrew, where the prosecutors outlined the numerous problems they were experiencing in the department.
It is expected that the executive members of the Bar Association will meet with the Director of Public Prosecutions, Kent Pantry, Q.C., some time this week to see what can be done to alleviate the situation in the department. Two of the topics discussed at the meeting were the low morale in the department and lack of scope for promotion. It was also feared that come September when the new court session opens, there may not be enough prosecutors to man the courts.
The exodus of prosecutors from the office of the DPP over the last two years has left the department staffed mostly by juniors. A High Court judge complained earlier this year that a prosecutor who was assigned in a very complex case was too junior to handle that case.
More than 70 per cent of the prosecutors at the office of the DPP have less than three years experience.
Two prosecutors resigned from the department in recent times, bringing to 16 the number to have resigned within the last two years.
The latest resignation came in June from Jenes Neathly, acting Crown Counsel, who came to public attention two months ago when Kent Pantry, Q.C., Director of Public Prosecutions, sent her a letter reverting her to her substantive post of Clerk of the Courts in the Resident Magistrates' Courts.
