A TEAM of technical experts familiar with court procedures in the Caribbean is in the island to help with the computerisation of the civil registry in the Supreme Court.
Mr. Gregory Girard, of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court: Mrs. Carlene Cross from the Trinidad and Tobago Supreme Court and Mrs. Carol Herbert, formerly with the Trinidad and Tobago Supreme Court, arrived in the island last weekend, to assist the process of transforming and modernising the Jamaica Supreme Court civil registry. They are scheduled to leave the island on Saturday, January 11.
This project, which is part of the Court Modernisation Programme, being implemented by the Ministry of Justice, is part-funded by the Social Conflict and Legal Reform Project (SCLR). The SCLR, a joint legal sector development project between the Governments of Jamaica and Canada, was established in part to strengthen the capacity of areas of the Jamaican legal system under its Legal Institutions Component.
The Dispute Resolution Foundation (DRF), a critical component in the reforming of the country's legal system, will also benefit from the computerisation of the civil registry.
The automation will further improve the wide area network (WAN) through which the Foundation gains online access to court documents in the Supreme Court (Civil Division). This access is expected to strengthen the thrust to broaden the use of alternate dispute resolution in the Civil Courts, the Foundation's Executive Director, Miss Donna Parchment, explained.
Chief Justice Lensley Wolfe, pointed out that another of the primary goals in the Court Modernisation Programme, was to restore the physical state of the Supreme Court to one more befitting its status in the society, and comparable to others elsewhere.
