Port-of-Spain, Trinidad Express:

THE JUDICIARY is on the verge of a burnout because of the current "superhuman effort" it has to make to eliminate the backlog of cases facing the court, Chief Justice Ivor Archie said Tuesday.

He made the comment as he opened the law term for the first time since taking over the reins of the judiciary in January.

Addressing the who's who of judicial officers in the Hall of Justice's Convocation Hall in Port-of-Spain, Archie revealed that "933 backlog cases were determined last year", and that the outstanding accumulation of cases would be "completely eliminated" by next year.

However, Archie said although this "remarkable rate of disposal" was worthy of high praise, it was also cause for great concern. He lamented that judicial officers are now beginning to burn out, and this was the cause of trial dates now being pushed further back.

Tall order

The judiciary, Archie added, is currently faced with "a tall order", which included each civil judge being required to dispose of roughly 500 cases a year.

"It is a pace that cannot be maintained indefinitely without additional help... the arithmetic is beginning to catch up with us," Archie said.

He said that a decade ago, in 1998, it was proposed that the complement of permanent High Court judges should be increased by five.

However, he lamented, "this is yet to happen; in the meantime, the workload of the courts has increased".

And in addition to this increased workload, judges are also faced with financial woes, because the current rate of remuneration is not a realistic resemblance to what the service's judicial officers are worth on the open market, Archie said.

He added that although public service "inevitably involves willing financial sacrifice", "there is a limit" to this. He noted, too, that the financial problems are further "exacerbated" by how judicial pensions are calculated.

Restrictions

Archie said that unlike parliamentarians, judicial officers are also severely restricted in the types of business ventures and investments in which they can participate. This, he said, left little opportunity for the judiciary to supplement income either while in office or after demitting it. He said this restriction, although not a disincentive to qualified candidates, "has serious implications for the independence of judges approaching the end of their tenure".