We all know the old saying that justice delayed is justice denied. In fact, they were just talking about it yesterday at the Supreme Court opening yesterday. And that's in relation to all those accused persons who've been on remand for years.
But what about judgments delayed? We know of quite a few very important ones that are pending for a over a year. Yesterday we asked the Attorney General - who has lamented such delays in the past - what can be done:..
Jules Vasquez
"We haven't gotten the UNIBAM judgment yet. The court of appeal's ruling on the second acquisition that was promised to the CCJ in October of last year, they haven't been delivered yet. These are consequential judgments that the entire society is waiting on and the judiciary is just cloistered - it doesn't responds to anything. It doesn't account to anyone."
Hon. Wilfred Elrington, Attorney General
"It's not so much that it is cloistered. It is just that they are besieged with work as I have told you the workload is increasing; the complexity of the issues are getting greater and in fact we have limitations. I mean the Chief Justice ideally; we should have a Chief Justice who only does administration - administrative work. He should not have to be doing criminal matters, civil matters and administered the judicial system of our country. That has got to change, so we need systemic changes to move forward, but systemic changes costs."
On the upside, the Supreme Court is upgrading its web services and information managements and this is expected to provide greater access to court records.
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