Govt moves to speed up criminal case preparation – Lashley

The government is scanning station diaries and medical journals to give digital disclosure to defence lawyers and the courts as it seeks to speed up the movement of criminal cases through the courts, Minister of Legal Affairs and Criminal Justice Michael Lashley has told Barbados TODAY.

“Right now all of the station diaries and public medical journals are being scanned so these can be delivered by way of a digital platform to defence lawyers and to the court,” Lashley said, adding that the next step is to move towards a paperless system that could help the courts process cases more efficiently.

Lashley said consideration could also be given to using former police officers and other civilians with experience in preparing files and statements, allowing serving officers to focus less on administrative tasks.

“I think one of the most important things that we have to do now is involve civilians. We can probably look at former police officers who have some sort of experience in the preparation of files and the preparation of statements, so that police officers won’t have to type statements any more and wouldn’t have to be largely in charge of statements. We also have to use the technology. So bringing civilians and bringing police officers, and of course, utilising consultants that we are seeking to do, would then now impact positively on disclosure.”

The minister said he was already seeing improvements in the preparation of files following recent meetings with consultants, prosecutors and police.

“It’s a work in progress, but we are working on it to get things ready,” Lashley said, noting that a number of firearm matters from 2024 and 2025 were ready, while work was continuing on possession and other firearm-related cases from 2026.

The measures come against the background of longstanding concerns about delays in the criminal justice system. The minister recalled observations by the Caribbean Court of Justice about the length of time it took for cases to move from the Magistrates’ Court to the High Court in Barbados.

Amendments to the Magistrates’ Court Act, including the abolition of preliminary inquiries, had helped to some extent, but challenges remained in getting files properly prepared, according to the prominent criminal barrister now overseeing the criminal justice system.

Pointing to the virtual hearings which began recently at District ‘C’ Magistrates’ Court, he said similar infrastructure was being put in place for the other courts. He noted that recordings of hearings could make it easier for magistrates to obtain transcripts, reducing the need for them to rely on handwritten notes.

“The fact is that if you do virtual recordings, of course it will be easier now for the magistrate to have a transcript.”.

Describing the Magistrates’ Court as “the foundation of the criminal justice system”, he said it needed to be modernised and made more efficient for the benefit of the public and others involved in the system.

The legislation governing the Magistrates’ Courts also needed closer examination, particularly the structure of the magistracy and the judicial officers’ terms and conditions of service, he added.

“The magistrate has been operating under a piece of legislation from way back. The chief magistrate and the magistrate are on the same level. There’s no initiative for someone to become chief magistrate. So all those things we have to look at. We have to look at the terms and conditions of magistrates and at the training of magistrates too, and for persons who want to be magistrates to have a training model for them.” 

(JB)