THE APHORISM that justice delayed is justice denied is being played out in Jamaica on a daily basis. As we reported in The Sunday Gleaner [December 18], Glenville Murphy, a 63-year-old farmer and retired stevedore, will have to wait until 2008 to have his civil suit against false imprisonment heard in the Supreme Court. Marcia Haughton, a JPS customer who brought a negligence suit against the company in 1998, only had the matter heard and settled this month, some seven years later. Mr. Murphy's case was also filed in 1998. Since then he has received two trial dates, neither of which has been honoured. The last was for December 2003, exactly two years ago.
These are only two of many cases which face inordinate delay in being heard in the Supreme Court and at other levels in the judicial system. The most basic functions of the Government are to provide security and to dispense justice. On the criminal trials side, many accused persons have been remanded in jail for inordinately long periods awaiting trial. The principle of an individual being innocent until proven guilty by due process is severely strained as criminal suspects are denied their freedom, that is, punished before a fair trial and conviction.
The lack of efficiency of the Supreme Court in dispatching matters brought before it cannot inspire confidence in the judicial process or greater use of it.
Despite the country's deep fiscal problems, solutions have to be found now, as a matter of urgency. Clearly, more judges are needed and must be paid reasonably well. The bench is unattractive both from the position of remuneration and from working conditions.
Longer hours of sitting, and for more days in the year, which are possible with more judges, better facilities and stronger support services have to be part of the solution. Moving more cases into non-judicial resolution through the mediation process, which the Supreme Court and Chief Justice are backing, is also a necessary step in controlling case load and speeding up hearings.
Improving the speed and efficiency of justice is not just a matter of clearing up the matters of frustrated individual complainants like Glenville Murray and Marcia Haughton; it is very deeply a matter of maintaining faith in the judicial process itself as the preferred means of settling differences and getting justice. More excuses and promises will not help.
THE OPINIONS ON THIS PAGE, EXCEPT FOR THE ABOVE, DO NOT NECESSARILY REFLECT THE VIEWS OF THE GLEANER.
