New judges appointed

Attorney General Dale Marshall has announced the appointment of new judges to the Court of Appeal and High Court of Barbados.

In the Appeal Court, those judges are: Justice Rejendra Narine, a judge in Trinidad and Tobago; Barbadian, Francis Belle, who serves as a judge of the Court in the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS); and Jefferson Cumberbatch, a leading academic at the University of the West Indies.

Meanwhile, those appointed to the High Court are: Shona Griffith from Belize; Cecil McCarthy, QC, who acted as a judge in the High Court of Barbados over the last three years; leading practitioner of Family Law in Barbados, Cicely Chase-Harding, QC; Barry Carrington, a public servant who also acted as a judge in 2018; and Chief Magistrate, Christopher Birch.

“Under the Constitution of Barbados, the Prime Minister, having taken into account the recommendations of the Judicial Appointments Committee, is obligated to consult with the Leader of the Opposition.

“The Prime Minister did that consultation over the last week and the Leader of the Opposition has without any reservation supported the recommendations that were first made by the judicial appointments committee and accepted by the Prime Minister,” Marshall said.

He also announced that renowned jurist, Justice Carlisle Greaves, will return to act s a temporary judge, along with Laurie-Ann Smith-Bovell, who has also done “outstanding work” in the island’s justice system.

These temporary appointments will see the number of criminal courts hearing criminal matters moving from two to five, with the two temporary judges working to clear the backlog.

However, the Attorney General explained that the appointment of temporary judges was not advertised. “If the business of the Court is such that urgent appointments need to be made, the Chief Justice will activate the process,” he said.

Prime Minister Mia Mottley explained that in changing the way judges were appointed in Barbados, this was the first time the positions were advertised, and a committee established to conduct interviews and make recommendations.

Those recommendations, she said, were then accepted, and consultations held with the Leader of the Opposition, before the recommendations were taken to the Governor General.