#BTEditorial – The Cheltenham effect on Barbados’ judiciary

Barbados’ post-independence history of appointing some of the most stellar legal minds to the position of Chief Justice has a new addition. Names like Sir Denys Williams and Sir William Douglas easily come to mind. They undertook their work on the bench with great competency but notably very little fanfare.

They blazed a trail for the likes of Sir David Simmons QC and Sir Marston Gibson QC who followed. When the history books of the Caribbean legal system are written, Sir David’s name will certainly be repeated for his defining judgments, his efforts to streamline the operations of Barbados’ archaic judicial system and most important, his fearless and equal application of the law on those who appeared before him.

It was not so long ago, however, that the appointment of a Chief Justice to the island’s judiciary was mired in controversy and political discord. Sir David, respected in Barbados and throughout the region, found himself in 2002, confronting his political past and the process through which he moved from the position of Attorney General in a Barbados Labour Party (BLP) administration to his elevation to the highest post on the local bench.

Sir David, now an active 80-year-old distinguished Caribbean jurist, also had a vibrant political past which became a point of much disquiet for the then Opposition Democratic Labour Party (DLP).

Sir David however went on to prove that a former politician could serve on the bench. And without argument, his legal legacy, we dare say, has been unblemished.

Sir Marston, whose arrival on the bench too, generated its fair share of controversy in 2011 as his ascension to the top post came not from the traditional crop of locally operating attorneys or judges but from North America.

He has also tried to implement measures to move the country’s slow court system into the 21st century.

Sir Marston placed emphasis on mediation, arguing that there were viable options for settlement of disputes, particularly civil contention, other than through further clogging of an already over-burdened judiciary.

Whether Sir Marston was given adequate resources, or his colleagues accorded him the respect and cooperation he needed for such an undertaking, one will never know. The point is, the success of his efforts is still up for debate.

These are important facts that should never be too far from our thoughts as we celebrate today the appointment of Patterson Cheltenham QC who assumes the post of Chief Justice of Barbados next month.

He has mighty big shoes to fill as the island’s fifth Chief Justice since we attained independence in 1966. More important, any appointment, whether a major national or even minor personal decision in 2020, will always be overshadowed by the novel coronavirus (COVID-19).

Nothing has escaped the pall of this pandemic. What it has done, though, is forced the island’s lethargic judiciary to find processes to conduct its business using available technology and an adaptation of the rules to ensure that justice is dispensed fairly.

One cannot speak to developments in the local judicial system without giving credit to the current administration which has kept its campaign promise to increase resources to the judiciary, and appoint more judges to the bench to ensure the thousands of criminal and civil cases that have been the bane of our existence and fodder for the Caribbean Court of Justice, are dispensed with.

While the public has not been given an update on the success of these judicial appointments in clearing the backlog, anecdotal reports suggest judges are delivering judgments in a timelier fashion, and some of the burden has been lifted from the backs of these judicial officers. They now have greater technological and research assistants at their disposal to move the process along with greater alacrity.

Cheltenham will oversee a much larger body of judicial officers than any of his predecessors. But he will also inherit a largely broken if not cracked system requiring not only his nearly four decades of legal expertise but his management skills and yes – a little bit of that Cheltenham charm.

He is known for getting people to line up behind him because his contemporaries value his opinions and his independence. Moreover, it will help his cause that despite being the brother of one of the island’s foremost politicians, Pat Cheltenham, as he is referred to by colleagues, has remained apolitical.

It is not by coincidence that Cheltenham’s appointment has been praised across all political lines, and that is a great launching pad from which our Chief Justice can begin his work. And so we wish him great success on this new path.