The long-awaited additional judges for the High Court and Court of Appeal moved a step closer to easing the backlog of cases on the courts’ docket with their official swearing in today.
Attorney General Dale Marshall says their appointments will result in a major dent in the thousands of cases over the next 24 months.
Five men and two women took the oath of office at Government House, before Governor General Dame Sandra Mason, friends and families and journalists.
Appointed were one Court of Appeal Judge Rajendra Narine; two temporary High Court Judges Laurie-Ann Smith –Bovell and Carlisle Greaves; and four High Court Judges Barry Carrington, Cicely Chase, Christopher Birch and Cecil McCarthy.
From left, Justices Barry Carrington; Cecil McCarthy; Cicely Chase; Chief Justice Sir Marston Gibson; Attorney General Dale Marshall; Justices Laurie-Ann Smith-Bovell; Christopher Birch; Rajendra Narine and Carlisle Greaves. Governor General Dame Sandra Mason and Acting Prime Minister George Payne after today’s swearing in ceremony.
Wishing the justices well, Dame Sandra, herself a former judge in both the High Court and the Court of Appeal, reminded them of the scripture in Luke 12:48, which states in part, “. . . to whom much is given, much will be required”, while cautioning them that “the world is watching”.
Marshall later told journalists that the appointment of the Judges marked a very important day in the delivery of justice in Barbados. “As of today, we have effectively five criminal courts being able to sit at all times.”
While stating that five criminal court judges was “relatively small” for Barbados, Marshall said: “We are optimistic that our five criminal court judges, together with some skillful management of our system will allow for a faster movement of the criminal trials.”
The Attorney General promised that another three High Court Judges would be sworn in at a later date and take office in January, adding that while the numbers would still be too little to adequately address the backlog of criminal cases, it was a major start.
“We have held fast to our commitment to increase the size of the judiciary in Barbados so as to be able to see an improvement in the movement of cases through our judicial system. The temporary judges are going to play a tremendous role in helping us to get rid of the backlog of criminal cases,” said Marshall.
There are currently over 1,000 criminal trials awaiting adjudication in Barbados, which Marshall argued could not be managed with only the two criminal judges prior to Monday.
There are roughly over 70 murder trials awaiting hearing, the oldest of which dates back to 2007. There are also a number of indictable matters that goes back prior to 2007.
“Those are not statistics that we can in any way be proud of,” said Marshall.
“So we have held fast to our commitment and I expect that over the next year to the next year-and-a-half or two years, we will begin to break the backlog of both the civil and criminal trials in Barbados,” he declared.
“It is not about fast-tracking one case over another. These murder trials awaiting hearing are already ready for trial but they simply have not been able to get done because we didn’t have the number of judges, the number of prosecutors, the number of courtrooms available to do this work,” he explained.
However, Marshall maintained that with the appointment of the new judges, that was coming to an end, adding that the response of the courts will now “match the response of the police and other law enforcement agencies”.
He also pointed out that Government was keen on introducing new Criminal Procedure Rules, which he said would “bring predictability” and enhance the judges’ ability to manage his or her criminal portfolio.
Marshall argued that not having cases heard in a timely manner was a form of “injustice” for the charged individuals, the victims, as well as the judicial system.
“When we try to conduct a trial of a case so far removed from when it happen that our ability to present proper evidence to a jury suffers and when that happens the accused is at risk, the family may suffer the pain of reliving an experience without a satisfactory resolution and the system comes into disrepute,” he said.
The newly appointed High Court Judges have their eyes set on improving the justice system.
Laurie-Ann Smith Bovell said she was humbled by the appointment and for her it meant “a lot of hard work”.
“We recognize that the judicial system has some challenges. I hope to bring my experience from the Magistrates’ Court bench to the High Court bench and hopefully to work with my fellow judges to improve the system of justice, hopefully make a serious dent in the backlog and to find ways with the resources that they will provide us, of not going back into a backlog and being current in all of our cases,” said Smith-Bovell, who served as a magistrate for the past decade.
Meanwhile, former public counsel Barry Carrington said he too was humbled, while adding that he was up to the challenge.
“You can expect me to work very hard,” he said.
Carrington, who acted in the position last year, said he thoroughly enjoyed the experience and he was looking forward to helping with the “lots of work” to be done.
He started his career as a policeman with the Royal Barbados Police Force in 1977. Carrington exited the force at the rank of inspector about 26 years ago after he was qualified as an attorney-at-law.
He served as chief legal officer for the Division of Energy and Telecommunications for the past 11 years.
marlonmadden@barbadostoday.bb
