Justice Ingrid Mangatal (centre) is accompanied by Senior Superintendent Jasmine Tomlinson-Brown (left), Resident Magistrate Carolin Tie (right) and Custos Clarence Nelson (centre back) following the opening parade for the start of the St. James Circuit Court in September last year.

Today we continue a special six-part series, which started Tuesday, on the state of justice in Jamaica. The series is written by one of the country's most experienced senior court journalists, Barbara Gayle. We welcome your feedback. Send it to:...

Barbara Gayle, Staff Reporter

The Children's Court sits in each parish and one Resident Magistrate acts as chairman for a region, which comprises several parishes.

In 2006, the RM who was the chairman of the region made up of St. Catherine, Clarendon, Manchester and St. Elizabeth, went on leave and no replacement was sent.

A third short

To get rid of the huge logjam of backlogs and delays, there is an urgent need to get more Resident Magistrates into the justice system, which has been suffering from the acute shortage of RMs.

"The complement is now a third short of what it should be," one RM disclosed recently. "If that is not addressed, then the large backlog in the RM Courts cannot be reduced."

A check by The Gleaner revealed that each of the 12 rural parishes is short of at least one RM. The situation is so serious that when a Resident Magistrate goes on leave there is seldom a replacement. So, in cases where there are only two Resident Magistrates in a parish, one has to preside over all the courts in that parish until the other RM resumes.

Recently, some lawyers complained bitterly that their clients could not get their cases tried because a Resident Magistrate was not sent to replace one of the two in St. Elizabeth who was on vacation leave.

"If the Government is really serious about reducing the backlog, then steps should be taken immediately to advertise the vacant posts so that qualified 'The Government needs to provide houses for Resident Magistrates who are assigned to work in parishes outside of the Corporate Area of Kingston and St. Andrew.'