- RUDOLPH BROWN/CHIEF PHOTOGRAPHER
People wait outside the Spanish Town Resident Magistrate's Court.Barbara Gayle, Staff Reporter
THE ISLAND'S Resident Magistrates are lashing out against the Government accusing it of neglecting them and treating them with disdain for an extended period.
The more than 40 Resident Magistrates face numerous challenges in their daily tasks and are now calling on the Government to take immediate steps to improve their working conditions.
"Our conditions of service leave much to be desired," said Marlene Malahoo Forte, president of the Association of Resident Magistrates, in an interview with the Sunday Gleaner last week.
The RMs' call for immediate solutions to their problems comes at a time when the entire justice system is under scrutiny and cries for justice are being echoed almost on a daily basis from citizens and organisations.
Among their concerns? They are not even supplied with updated volumes of the Laws of Jamaica, the most basic and vital tool of their trade and since 2002, they have not had a salary increase.
"We are overworked, underpaid and not equipped with the tools to carry out our trade," Mrs. Malahoo Forte said as she sat around a wooden desk in her modestly-furnished chambers which had a few old law books on the shelves. A check at other chambers revealed that the shelves had law books which were not up to date.
According to the RMs, in performing their duties many have gone beyond the call of duty. Several have spoken candidly off the record about their frustrations. Their president was at first reluctant to comment on their concerns publicly, but the problems are clearly having a negative effective of their ability to do their work.
The deplorable conditions under which they have to work have been highlighted by the Resident Magistrates for decades but they say that more often than not they are ignored.
URGENT REFORM NEEDED
The president is calling for an urgent reform of the magistracy in addition to reform of the operations of the RM courts.
"We have tried to address the issues at the ministry level without success," Mrs. Malahoo Forte said.
One of the main concerns of the Resident Magistrates is the fact that under section 4 (2) of the Judicature (Resident Magistrates) Act they are designated as judges but are not part of the judiciary and are still in the civil service. Mrs. Malahoo Forte pointed out that "even the Constitution, which speaks to the judiciary, only refers to the Supreme Court and Court of Appeal judges and excludes the magistracy. Anyone exercising judicial functions must be protected in a special way and this can only be guaranteed through the separation of powers," she added.
Even some High Court judges and senior lawyers agree that it is wrong for anyone exercising judicial function to be part of the civil service.
A former Resident Magistrate who is now on the High Court Bench disclosed that when the late Michael Manley was Prime Minister, it was agreed in principle that the Resident Magistrates would be included in the judiciary but nothing further was done. There are some lawyers who expressed the view that the courthouses and working conditions for the nation's judges should be significantly improved before the Government moves ahead to set up the Caribbean Court of Justice as our final appellate court.
Resident Magistrates have not received a salary increase since 2002 and Mrs. Malahoo Forte says that although the memorandum of understanding does not apply to them, to date no one has said anything to them about their salary. The Ministry of Justice informed the association last year that it had forwarded their request to the Ministry of Finance and was still waiting on a response from the Ministry of Finance.
Several members of the association who were interviewed said that judges should not be negotiating their salaries and the association was aggrieved with what was happening. Unlike the Supreme Court and Court of Appeal judges, no special commission is set up to deal with their salaries and the association is now calling on the Government to set up a special task force to inquire into their conditions of service.
Mrs. Malahoo Forte, in highlighting the Government's failure to equip them with the tools of their trade, referred to the new Maintenance Act which came into effect in December 2005, repealing the Affiliation Act and the former Maintenance Act and also amending various provisions of the Matrimonial Causes Act and Status of Children's Act. She said, to date, some Resident Magistrates had not received copies of the act and it was just over a week ago that the act was issued to some RMs.
"A lot of matters come before the court under this area of law and there is no reliable mechanisms in place to facilitate the timely dissemination of new pieces of legislation to judges of the Resident Magistrates courts," she stressed.
There are very few computers in the RM courts and there is the need for the Resident Magistrates to be given laptop computers so they can take them around with them so that they can have the law at their fingertips at all times. Mrs. Malahoo Forte says the antiquated form by which judges have to be taking copious notes in court is burdensome.
The Government announced recently that court reporters would soon be assigned to the RM courts to take verbatim notes and Mrs. Malahoo Forte said the association was looking forward to improvements in that area.
HEAVY WORKLOAD
"Resident Magistrates who are indeed judges, are treated with disdain and it is abundantly clear that we shoulder the greater part of the administration of justice," she charged while referring to the heavy workload they face on a daily basis.
"The Resident Magistrate's Courts are the people's courts. The face of justice which the public usually sees first or encounters first, is that of the RM courts because it is the court of first instance. Serious cases such as murder and rape are first brought before the RM courts. So until the Government improves the conditions and fixes the problems, the cries for justice will continue to go out," she added.
The association is also concerned about the lack of adequate security and is calling for proper measures to be put in place to secure the safety of judicial officers who interface with the most violent criminals.
Mrs. Malahoo Forte said that as recently as December 2005, a Resident Magistrate in a particular parish was threatened and a knife was found on the Resident Magistrate's seat in court. She pointed out that the Resident Magistrates had to travel between outstations on lonely roads where they had problems making
telephone contacts.
"We, as judges, are scattered all over the island and have to travel far away from the main courthouse in the parish capitals several days per week to outstations and the journey can turn out to be dangerous because at times, we cannot even make telephone contact because our mobile phones are out of range," she said.
The issue of housing is a sore point. Resident Magistrates are supposed to reside in the parish to which they are assigned. The Government has failed to provide houses for Resident Magistrates who are assigned to work outside of the Corporate Area, leaving them vulnerable to landlords who, at times, unknown to the RM, may be drug dealers or money launderers. There is no mechanism in place to assist the judges to secure housing befitting their office.
"We have had landlords turning up as accused persons before the Resident Magistrates who are their tenants and the RM had no prior knowledge about them." She explained that happened because "sometimes you interface with an agent".
One Resident Magistrate, she disclosed, had to move overnight because the owner of the house appeared before the RM and it was at that time the RM learnt of the relationship.
She disclosed that when the members of the association are looking for houses suitable to their office, they don't know if the owners are money launderers or drug dealers because there is no one to assist in securing housing.
ABSENCE OF GOVERNMENT HOUSES
She said in the absence of government houses in the parishes, the Resident Magistrates have asked for a housing allowance. The request, she said, was made to the Ministry of Justice which forwarded it to the Ministry of Finance. To date there has been no response.
A circular from the Ministry of Finance in 1998 concerning housing subsidy for Resident Magistrates and Clerk of the Courts stated that "where a Resident Magistrate or the Clerk of the Courts is permanently assigned or transferred to work at a location which is 80 km or more from his or her permanent place of residence, a temporary rental subsidy should be paid for a period not exceeding 18 months, subject to the availability of funds to meet the cost involved."
But the association feels that the subsidy should not be subjected to availability of funds because once there is the need, then the subsidy should be paid. The association is contending that it should also include Resident Magistrates who have not yet been permanently employed because they too have expenses. There are Resident Magistrates who have to be
paying mortgages for houses in the Corporate Area, and at the same time, paying rent in the parishes where they are assigned and that is causing severe financial hardships for them.
In the absence of an adequate housing allowance, the association is calling on the Government to provide housing for them because up to the early 1990s, there were government houses in the parishes for Resident Magistrates. Investigations revealed that there is now only one such house and it is in Westmoreland.
Although, a few of the court offices have computers, they do not have the proper programmes which are essential for the smooth administration of the court offices.
When Circuit Courts are in session, the Resident Magistrates are displaced and have to keep court in side offices which are not suitable for the holding of court, Mrs. Malahoo Forte said.
The association, she said, welcomes the recent announcement made at the Cabinet retreat in relation to the upgrading of the justice system. However, they want to be consulted so they can make their own
recommendations towards the improvement of the system.
