- NORMAN GRINDLEY/DEPUTY CHIEF PHOTOGRAPHER
Residents gathered in front of the Mandeville Resident Magistrate's Court last week.
Barbara Gayle, Staff Reporter
THE SCALE of justice is piled high as local courts continue to be saddled with a huge backlog of cases. In addition, space to store important documents is fast running out.
Rose Sirjue wept last week as she outlined the difficulties she was facing to have a 23-year-old case tried speedily. She said that she was crying for "justice because justice delayed is justice denied."
Ms. Sirjue's father was shot and killed in 1983 and, to date, there has not been a Coroner's Inquest in the matter.
The inquest started some years ago, she said, but was adjourned in order to allow the police to provide additional information in relation to the bullet which was recovered from her father's body. Since then, the case has stalled.
Ms. Sirjue says she has written letters seeking help from the relevant authorities and court officials to have the matter disposed of, but she has not been successful.
"Justice is not just daubing paint on the walls of a courthouse. It is much more than that. It is ensuring that the cases brought by the citizens are disposed of quickly," Ms. Sirjue stressed.
Lawyers tell The Sunday Gleaner that each term, more than 100 cases are being traversed from one term to the next. The Jamaican Bar Association is aware of these problems and its president, Arlene Harrison-Henry, says she hopes the "elaborate plan" announced recently by Government at its Cabinet retreat for improvements to the justice system, will be a reality.
"We hope we have reached implementation stage, because we have had many promises in the past," Mrs. Harrison-Henry told The Sunday Gleaner last week.
She said while there has been refurbishing of some courthouses and police stations, the justice system is still underfunded.
Litigants who have civil cases in the Supreme Court are now being told that they cannot get a trial date before 2008.
RIDICULOUS PROPORTIONS
Lawyers who practise in the Gun Court have their share of problems. There are only two courts disposing of the hundreds of cases.
"The backlog of cases in the Gun Court has reached ridiculous proportions," says senior attorney-at-law Lloyd McFarlane. He disclosed that up to last week, the earliest mention date for a bail application was February 24. He said this was the clearest indication that the number of courts must be increased.
Judges are doing their best to weed out cases that are not supposed to be on the list and are pushing prosecutors to do so.
But Mr. McFarlane says even when such cases are taken off the list, there is still a large number of Gun Court cases coming before the courts.
Senior attorney-at-law Bert Samuels referred to the case of an accused man who he represents.
He disclosed that the man was arrested and kept in custody three weeks before he was taken before the Gun Court.
Mr. Samuels said when the man appeared in court this month, he informed the court that he was going to make a bail application and was told that he could not get a date for such an application until six weeks time.
Mr. Samuels said even if the man was granted bail, he would have lost his liberty for nine weeks.
He described the situation as "unfair" having regard to the presumption of innocence and the constitutional provisions regarding the liberty of the subject.
