7 News Belize

Bar Declares War On CJ For 29 Pending Judgements
posted (July 21, 2017)
In the next half hour, the Bar Association of Belize will hold its second annual general meeting and it could be pivotal for the judiciary! That's because the Bar is fed up with a backlog of over two dozen judgments which are sitting on Chief Justice Kenneth Benjamin's desk.

And tonight, the Bar is considering the option of calling for, quote "(the) voluntary resignation of the Chief Justice on the basis of a lack of confidence in his ability to deliver outstanding decisions."

Failing that, another option is to, quote:
"Make a formal complaint to the appropriate body for the removal of the Chief Justice from office for misconduct, that is, the manifest failure to deliver timely decisions in breach of the constitutional right to a fair hearing within a reasonable time."

That's very heavy stuff, and - while we stress those are just proposed courses of action - if any of those options are adopted tonight, it's means no less than a full - on judicial crisis.

Jules Vasquez has obtained documents which show a Bar Association that has heard enough excuses:

The last item on tonight's agenda for the bar association meeting is the prickly issue of outstanding judgements.

In this 4 page background document, the Bar outlines a very troubling situation, where judgement is pending in 30 cases before the Supreme Court. The delay time is between two years and five years five months. The document notes, with gravity, "most of these cases are before the Honorable Chief Justice."

The matter was first raised with the Chief Justice in 2016, and he replied, in an apologetic email: "I have regrettably accumulated a number of reserved judgements over an extended period of time. It is embarrassing and I accept full responsibility."

At the time, June 2016, the CJ said he would reduce the current matters before him, and committed to deliver judgements on the average of two per week, so that he would be finished by Mid-September.

But that didn't happen. The bar notes that only 3 judgements were delivered - leaving 29 outstanding. Add to that one outstanding by retired judge Gonzalez and it's a nice round figure of 30.

So, the matter was raised again this year and the Chief Justice wrote back to the president of the Bar just yesterday. He says the matter has caused him "much anxiety and distress", and says he will use his vacation months to address the situation.

He says, quote, "the patience and understanding of the Bar is craved."

But, that craving may go unsatisfied. Citing the constitution and the authorities of all pre-eminent courts, the bar position concludes, "the delay is such that at the very least, there is a presumption of a breach of the constitutional right of the litigants to a fair hearing within a reasonable time."

They conclude, "The delay, therefore, needs to be justified by the Court. It would appear that the only explanation which could be provided would relate to administrative inefficiencies or a lack of resources; reasons which the courts have consistently considered insufficient to excuse such inordinate delay."

So, as we noted in the story, the Chief Justice did replay yesterday saying he would deal with the judgements while on vacation for the next two months.

So one proposal that will also be tabled tonight is to, quote, "Postpone taking any specific action until October 2017 in light of the letter from the Honourable Chief Justice."

Another option is to, quote, "Institute a Constitutional Motion for the benefit of aggrieved litigants seeking declaratory and injunctive relief against the Chief Justice. In particular, a declaration to the effect that the delays amount to a breach of the constitutional rights of the litigants."

Tonight the bar will decide which, if any, of those courses of action it will take. We'll update you on Monday.

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