Guyana Observer News

Collapse of the justice system – AFC Leader

Monday, 16 March 2009

- 21,366 civil cases backlog shows…
Leader of the Alliance for Change, Raphael Trotman, says that the huge backlog in cases in the High Court indicates a collapse of the justice system. According to him, when he saw the Supreme Court’s Annual Report for 2007, which stated that at the end of that year there were 21,366 civil matters and 512 criminal matters pending for 2008, he was astonished.
“As a practitioner I knew that the situation was bad, but I had no idea that it was this bad,” Trotman told Kaieteur News. He noted that nothing is being said by the respective authorities as to how to get out of this problem.
This, Trotman added, pointed to what he described as a total collapse of the justice system.
He pointed out that adding to those already high figures is the fact that more than 7000 cases are filed per annum and are not dealt with.
Trotman contended that there is need for an urgent review by the stakeholders to figure out how to deal with the situation.
He also said that once justice is not served, people will lose faith in the justice system, and when this happens they may seek to take matters into their own hands.
Of the 21,366 civil matters for 2007 only 72 went to the mediation centre.
According to the report, if two judges were to hear and conclude one civil matter every day for the 249 working days of the year, this would mean that a total of 498 matters would be completed.
However, it added, this is not possible, since civil matters in the High Court sometimes involve complex issues which require hearing of evidence over a number of days.
“Assuming for the sake of argument that two judges could complete these matters, including delivery of decisions, it would mean that, deducting this number from the 5,600 cases filed, the average backlog would be 5,102,” the report said.
It also pointed out that, given the assignment of work, the present number of judges is inadequate to deal with the number of cases filed.
“Every effort must therefore be made to increase the present complement of judges, and to utilise the provisions of Article 128A of the Constitution to appoint part-time judges.”

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