Barbara Gayle, Staff Reporter
THE FEES for filing documents in the courts will be increased significantly on January 21, The Gleaner understands.
Details of the increases were not available yesterday, but it is understood that fees for filing documents in the Supreme Court could rise from the current $150 per document to $2,000 per document.
And the courts, plagued by a huge backlog of civil cases, are now being governed by new Civil Procedure Rules which will allow them to keep pace with changing technology.
Under the new rules, which came into effect on January 1, Supreme Court judges have the power to make use of electronic communication to assist in the disposal of civil cases.
The rules also state that documents can be served by electronic means, namely fax. Persons filing suits are referred to in the new rules as claimants, while under the old rules they were referred to as plaintiffs.
Section 2 (7) of the Civil Procedure Rules deals with the court's discretion as to where, when and how it deals with cases. The section states that the "the court may deal with a case at any place and time that it considers appropriate."
"In considering what place or time may be appropriate, the court must consider the convenience of such place or time to the parties and their attorneys-at-law and to any witnesses.
"The court may order that any hearing be conducted in whole or in part by means of a telephone conference call, video-conference or any other form of electronic communication.
"The court may give directions to facilitate the conduct of a hearing by the use of any electronic or digital means of communication or storage or retrieval of information, or any other technology it considers appropriate."
Part 1 of the Civil Procedure Rules state that the rules are a new procedural code with the overriding objective of enabling the court to deal with cases justly . It states that dealing justly with a case includes ensuring, so far as is practicable, that the parties are on equal footing and are not prejudiced by their financial position. The new rules are designed to save expense. It also calls on the parties to help the court to further "the overriding objective."
The new rules gives the Chief Justice the power to nominate another judge to complete or retry a case in which a judge has died, or is incapacitated, or ceases to be a judge of the court. If, for any other reason, "it is impossible, or inconvenient for the judge to act in the claim, the Chief Justice may nominate some other judge to retry or complete the trial of the claim or to hear any application."
